Why is gun control controversial

Certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment, or that its use could contribute to the common defense. The interpretations yielded in the long aftermath of this decision are mixed, with gun control advocates viewing this as a precedent establishing the right of the federal government to impose limitations on gun ownership rights without being said to violate the conditions of the Second Amendment.

By contrast, gun rights advocates view the language of the opinion as evidence that the courts accept the concept of individual rights as being implied by the maintenance of a well-regulated militia, and that the ruling was only decided thusly because presiding judges lacked knowledge that sawed-off shotguns were actually employed by the military at the time. To this end, gun rights advocates view the finding as support for individual gun rights as opposed to supporting rights only for militias.

In , President John F. This moment began a multi-year effort to create more restrictive federal laws around interstate gun commerce. It was claimed that alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had purchased the weapon used to murder Kennedy through an interstate magazine mail order.

Scrutiny of the event led to a proposal that would prohibit interstate firearms transfers unless between manufacturers, dealers, and licensed importers. Debate over the conditions of the law persisted for several years. But in , the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Gun Control Act GCA was passed in , placing restrictions on interstate trade of firearms, restricting interstate gun sales by mail, and establishing categories of individuals who could be restricted from making gun purchases, including convicted felons.

The Act would also largely absorb and expand on the conditions of the National Firearms Act as well as establishing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as an American law enforcement agency. This would also be the beginning of a sea change for gun rights advocates. The new federal regulations would place the gun rights community in an increasingly defensive posture. And as the next several years wore on, this shifting attitude would seep into the NRA as well. In the decade immediately following passage of the Gun Control Act, the NRA underwent a fundamental shift in orientation.

Previously a non-partisan group, the s saw the NRA increasingly solidifying its connection to the Republican Party. By the mids, the NRA had become an explicitly political organization with a focus on lobbying and building coalitions with conservative office-holders.

These findings served as an imperative to create and pass the Firearm Owners Protection Act The bill did add a ban on civilian ownership of machine guns manufactured after the date of its passage, but otherwise rolled back laws which previously restricted interstate sales of firearms, prohibited the shipment of ammunition by U.

The new standards also added federal protection for transporting firearms through states where such weapons would otherwise be illegal. The NRA celebrated the legislation as a victory while it was broadly opposed by law enforcement groups.

The next several years would see a growing political polarization around the issue of gun rights vs. In turn, the Republican Party became increasingly focused on protecting expansive Second Amendment rights.

The NRA strongly opposed the bill, and worked to derail its passage through its affiliation with the Republican Party. The lobby group succeeded to the extent that the Bill could only be effectively passed during the very brief window of time where Democrats possessed control over both the White House and Congress. However, even this effort required compromise. One major concession to the NRA was a sunset on the five-day waiting period.

That condition was never renewed, which means the five-day waiting period requirement ceased to exist in The brief period of momentum for gun control also contributed to the passage of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in A subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of , the Ban applied to the manufacturing of certain specified semi-automatic firearms for civilian use as well as large capacity ammunition magazines.

The ban was passed with a narrow majority in the Senate and included a sunset. Court cases raised against various conditions of the ban failed to gain traction. So too did Congressional efforts to renew the ban. Thus, it reached its sunset in All efforts at reestablishing a ban on federal assault weapons have failed since that time. Two major incidences involving violent confrontation between fringe citizen groups and federal law enforcement—Ruby Ridge and Waco —sparked growing fear of domestic government overreach.

As a consequence, this period of time saw the emergence of numerous homegrown and heavily armed domestic militias. For more on these incidences, and the modern militia movement, check out our take on the Extremism Crontroversy. The condition was established, according to its supporters, to ensure that the CDC did not fund politically-motivated research aimed at justifying additional gun control legislation.

Gun violence largely trended downward through the s. However, the end of the decade would see the emergence of a new pattern, with mass casualty events growing in visibility and frequency. The Columbine High School massacre would prove a dark landmark. The shooting on April 20th, saw two heavily armed students rampage through their Littleton, Colorado high school, murdering 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.

The nation was collectively shocked by the young age of the perpetrators and victims. However, in the two decades that have followed, Columbine stands less as an aberration and more as a template for countless future school shootings. Heller that a lasting precedent was established. The landmark Supreme Court decision struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia as well as a rule that would require rifle and shotgun owners to keep their weapons unloaded and disassembled, or else secured using a trigger lock.

Such is to say that, for the first time, the courts established a precedent stating that gun rights are not strictly reserved for state militias, and that the conditions of the Amendment are intended to extend to individual owners for the purposes of self defense. Our Rankings produced a list of influencers with particular clout in the world of conservative politics, including those who have held leadership positions in the NRA, who have served on the judiciary, or who have established visible media personae among conservative supporters.

Also included are a number of researchers and political figures who have been instrumental in supporting or creating gun control legislation. This list is dominated by popular non-fiction aimed at advocating for gun rights but also includes a few texts by researchers and journalists which advocate for sensible gun control laws.

According to Business Insider , marked the highest total of gun-related deaths in the U. Gun violence claimed 19, lives even as a pandemic disrupted so many other aspects of American life. Suicide by gun claimed an additional 24, lives in Moreover, in recent years, the United States has faced what some would term an epidemic of mass shootings—which are defined as incidents in which a shooter claims the lives of at least four victims.

The Gun Violence Archive uses a more expansive definition for mass shooting, identifying such incidences as those where at least four people are shot, including both fatalities and survivors. According to this definition, saw mass shooting incidents , up from in Each of these mass shootings typically provokes a renewed debate in public and in Congress over the role of the federal government in restricting gun ownership. In spite of their visibility, mass shootings account for only a small fraction of the gun-related deaths in the United States.

As the numbers above demonstrate, the vast majority of gun-related deaths are suicides, with urban crime, gang activity, domestic violence, police shootings, and accidental deaths making up the majority of non-self-inflicted, gun-related casualties. Citing these patterns of violence, advocates for stronger gun control measures call for policies such as a universal background check for all gun sales, including those made at gun shows, restrictions for gun buyers with mental illness, and bans on the sale of certain large-capacity magazines and assault weapons, among other conditions.

Gun rights advocates remain steadfastly opposed to many of these restrictions, though there is some bipartisan agreement on the use of background checks. One can blame the Internet. Markman said, "It's no fun to confront someone who believes something different than you do. Fifty years ago, when there were three TV networks and a local newspaper, you had no choice but to confront things that were unpleasant because you had few options.

Regularly interacting with people whose views oppose one's own has a moderating effect, Markman explained.

Today, thanks to cable TV and the Internet, one can easily avoid the unpleasant but valuable experience of disagreeing with people. I can subscribe to email lists, websites, chat groups full of people whose opinions are quite similar to my own," he said. Yelling into echo chambers about issues such as gun control, instead of engaging in conversations with those who disagree, has led each of us to spin toward extreme views, Markman said.

The best solution to most problems requires some discussion. The result was that during the NRA's annual meeting in Ohio, more conservative elements of the group staged a surprise coup in what's become known as The Revolt in Cincinnati.

They were led by Harlon Carter, the head of the NRA's lobbying arm who had once been jailed for shooting dead a Mexican teenager. After a fraught meeting that lasted until , the NRA's leadership was voted out and the group's new direction as a fierce opponent to gun control was set. One of the most significant recent developments in recent US gun law came thanks to a security guard in Washington DC.

The district had some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, barring individuals from keeping a gun in the home. But Dick Heller wanted to be able to take his work gun home to the high-crime area in which he lived.

The debate focused closely on what those 27 words in the Second Amendment meant in a 21st Century context. Is it OK for an individual to own a gun if they're not technically in a militia? Five of the justices thought the DC law should be struck down, and four dissented. A whole new interpretation of the Second Amendment was drawn. In his majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote : "There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms.

The Supreme Court has now acknowledged it. While gun sales had already been on the rise in the US for some time, they started to increase significantly in the wake of the DC vs Heller case - in the month the ruling was made, almost , FBI background checks were conducted; in the same month a year later, there were almost , It's worth noting though that the Supreme Court added some caveats.

Justice Scalia wrote: "Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.

The court's opinion, he said, did not mean "longstanding prohibitions", such as "the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings" were now lifted. Only time will tell whether the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, is a true turning point in the debate about guns in the US. But it helped galvanise a new gun control movement driven by young people - one that is not necessarily calling for an end to guns, but for compromise and change.

Students who survived the attack that killed 17 people have demanded an end to gun violence in schools. Their pleas helped bring about a federal ban on "bump stocks", modifications that enabled semi-automatic rifles to shoot more rounds per minute.