The current gun laws are under the second amendment to the United States Constitution, the amendment reads; “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, should not be infringed”. This was put in place to originally allow the general public to keep arms so that in a case of dictatorship/ tyranny the public could rise up against the government in a militia. There are many cases however when the law has been taken advantage for a bad purpose, for example a recent school shooting in Florida, a shooting In Las Vegas and many other shootings in the past often involving innocent school children, many people are encouraging the change of the second amendment, however, there is still a strong argument for the law to remain. The National Rifle Association (NRA) are one of the powerful groups that support the law, Donald Trump, America’s president, is also encouraging the law, I will be talking about their views and how much influence they have throughout the essay. I have chosen to talk about this topic because I feel that it is a very current and topical argument, also I am very interested to find out more about the topic.
My first point is going to set out what Donald Trump thinks about the second amendment and to what extent he agrees with it, Donald Trump agrees with the second amendment and that it should remain in place, however he does disagree with it on some points for example the assault rifle ban “I certainly stand by my opposition to Gun Control when it comes to taking guns from law-abiding citizens. You mention that the media describes the AR-15 as an “assault rifle,” which is one example of the many distortions they use to sell their agenda. However, the AR-15 does not fall under this category” , in this quote he states that an assault rifle ban should/ could go ahead within the near future, however he does then argue later on that only military grade weapons should be banned from public use. My next point is also on the topic of Trump; however, the following point does agree with the second amendment and its views this point is going to talk about the fact that Donald Trump portrays that changing the gun laws would not decrease the crime levels in the United States, Trump Stated that, “Gun control does not reduce crime. It has consistently failed to stop violence. Americans are entitled to protect their families, their property and themselves” . That statement explains that Donald does not disagree with the second amendment in fact he states that families should be able to defend themselves using firearms however if the law was changed and policed properly then there would be no need to use firearms in self-defence. My penultimate point to set out about Donald’s view on the second amendment is to do with mental health even though Trump is against a tighter law on guns he states that there should be a tighter control on the institutional problem to do with mental health he clearly states this when he proclaims, “This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem” he then goes on to use an example of a school shootings in Virginia, this clearly shows that
Donald Trump believes that there is a problem with some people’s mental health. My final point is when Donald Trump said that arming teachers could be a way to prevent further mass school shootings. So now that I have set out Donald’s main points I am now going to discuss whether they are valid or not, his first point is about assault rifles, this is a valid point to make and it could be a good idea because this would stop further mass shootings from taking place, it also does not clash with his other points because it still allows families to protect themselves and their property with handguns and other semi-automatic firearms. Trumps second point is that changing the gun laws to be stricter would not decrease the crime levels, this point is not that valid because guns do cause/ enable crimes to take place and often end up with a fatality, however he does have a point which links to his other point about mental illnesses because almost all of the recent school shootings have been committed by someone who had a form of a mental illness. This point agrees with the statement that the current gun laws under the second amendment does make America more liable to attacks/ crimes.
The NRA believes that the second amendment shot not be changed this is because they believe that it is part of the citizen's civil rights to be able to uphold an uprising against the government forces this is to prevent a tyranny or dictatorship from happening,
, "Furthermore, the sole purpose of the organization is to protect and enforce their stance on politics of gun control.
The answer is simple: the NRA is pro-gun. Though the foundation of the NRA began as a simple way to train soldiers to become more proficient in shooting their rifles, the organization has held the right to bear arms as their maxim, their battle-cry, their motto, for what is now hundreds of years”. However 13,286 people were killed in the US by firearms in 2015, this fact would suggest that the ban should go ahead and that the majority of crimes in the US are gun related.
My final point disagrees with the statement, an argument states that if the second amendment was to be changed it would cause more crimes to happen this is because of gang-related gun crimes, from 2007 to 2012 over 80% of crime involving a firearm was carried out by gangs, if the second amendment was to be repealed and policed more it would mean that fewer guns would be available to those gangs, the main reason for gang violence it the fact that they don’t have enough firepower and they want more, this leads to them fighting over them which often leads to homicides, so if their guns were taken way then would have to fight more to gain more firepower, 64% of all guns are owned by gangs this means that the majority of guns held on a legal licence are owned by gangs, it is estimated that there is a further 47% of guns that are owned illegally and 93% of those guns are owned by gangs . Studies taken by the FBI show that there is on average about 93 deaths per day in the US in the past year, and studies also show that over 60 of those murders were gang-related.
For my second point I am going to use a recent event as a case study, I am going to talk about the school shooting in Florida. In the US on average about 49% of households have guns, there are 319 million people in the US and there are 371 million firearms within the US . On the 14th of February, there was a mass shooting which occurred at Stoneman Douglas high school seventeen school pupils were killed and furthermore seventeen students injured, this led to it being one of the deadliest school shooting on record. The suspect was identified as Nikolas Jacob Cruz, psychiatrists highly recommended that he was to be ordered a mandatory admission to a residential treatment facility, he then went on to receive mental health treatment but, in the year, leading up to the attack he had received none, he then legally purchased an AR15 he then went on to carry out the attack a year later. The main argument here is that how was he able to purchase a semi-automatic weapon after being placed under mental health treatment, also the police received 23 calls regarding Cruz and his condition, but they still failed to prevent the actions. After the event many students protested and stood for the change of the Federal law the NRA responded saying that it would be a breach of the Second Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment, this states that each citizen has the power to forbid a restriction of citizens or persons. The NRA's business dropped heavily as many companies boycotted their business affiliates. The NRA was established in 1871, it was formed by William C church, this was a result of the displayed lack of marksmanship which was shown by Americas troops, the NRA have a variety of programs running to support the second amendment such as; NRA county, law enforcement, hunter services and many other programmes . This point semi-agrees with the statement because it proves that firearms should be regulated more, but it sways more to the point of the assault rifle ban, also it shows that America needs to look more into the background of there gun licence applicants, is this was considered Cruz would not have been allowed to purchase his assault rifle and cause mass shootings. Recently there has been another school shooting in Florida on the 21st of April, however, this only involved one person being injured they were shot in the ankle with a short barrelled shotgun, a seventeen-year-old suspect was taken into custody and "charged with terrorism, aggravated assault with a firearm, culpable negligence, carrying a concealed and unlicensed firearm, possessing a firearm on school property, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, interfering with school function and tress pass on school property" , this attack was then responded by another school pupil walkout/ protest. This point strongly agrees with the statement because the second amendment allows people to buy shotguns and there is no way of controlling whether or not they are tampered with for example shortened.
So overall I conclude that, the second amendment which states that “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, should not be infringed”, this means that the general public should be allowed to bear/ keep arms at all times but they must be concealed when in public, my first point talks about Donald trumps views and how he thinks that the second amendment should not be changed to be stricter and he thinks that it would not change the level of crime throughout America, this could be backed up by the fact that if someone wanted to carry out a terrorist attack/ crime they would probably be able to get their hands on some form of weapon if they were determined. Also, Donald Trump talks about the ban on assault rifles and how he agrees with it because it would prevent crimes from being so effective and deadly to the surrounding neighbourhood, this point strongly shows that the change of the second amendment could result in a lower/ less common crime or terrorist attack rate. My second point talks about the recent school shootings in Florida where over 15 people were injured and their friends and family affected as well, this was a result of poor controlling of the second amendment as Cruz (the suspect of the attack) had posted many warnings on social media about how and when he was going to attack the school that he attended, also he was recommended by a mental institute that he should not be able to purchase any form of firearm or weapon that could cause mass destruction if handled wrongly, he had also attended a mental asylum which should have noted also that he should be unable to purchase any weapon . It would be possible to argue that if there had been a better communication through the police of Florida and the mental health services that the school shooting could have been deterred. The NRA community has been strongly criticised over its beliefs and policies on the second amendment, there ahs been several protests against there beliefs the protests were mainly taken out/ led by students which were backed up by their family and friends. Bearing in mind all of the points that I just explained I would suggest that the second amendment does not need to be changed but it should be strongly policed and the communication between the mental health and police services should be improved this would have prevented the school shooting in Florida as the suspect of attack was strongly advised not to be allowed to purchase a firearm.
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