My editorial is going to focus on
U.S. federal gun laws. Particularly, how critical Obama has been toward gun
ownership in America. Obama tried to pass a bill that
was part of a package of measures he promised to put the full weight of his
office behind. The bill was intended to make it more difficult for criminals to
get guns. According to CNN.com, this legislation was set in motion around the time
“20 first-graders and six educators were killed last December in a mass
shooting at an elementary school.” Other
incidents similar to this one have happened while Obama has been in office.
Every time an incident similar to the one I have previously mentioned is in the
media Obama tries to push for stricter gun laws. According to Rense.com, Obama was pushing to
ban the following weapons: assault rifles, “Any semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine that can
accept more than
10 rounds (except tubular magazine
.22 rim fire rifles),
a semiautomatic pistol with a fixed
magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds,” and shot-guns with a detachable
magazine that holds more than five rounds.
In my opinion,
the shooting at the elementary school in New Town, Connecticut was what pushed
Obama to try and make the new laws I previously mentioned. However, an elementary school is a gun free zone
in accordance with the Gun Free-school zone Act of 1990. The federal law supersedes
state law therefore, even if a citizen has
a license to carry a concealed hand gun he or she is committing a serious offense
by caring the gun on school property, but of course the nut job that shot all
of those people didn’t care to much about that. My point is that stricter
federal gun laws aren’t going to prevent people who are for whatever reason a
threat to society from accessing means to hurt people. It’s my opinion; the stricter
gun laws prevent law abiding citizens from having accesses to means to defend themselves
more than the gun laws protect us.
There is
one exception to what I just wrote. In Texas (state law), under the current gun
laws it’s legal for a citizen to sell another citizen a firearm, basically no
questions asked. The citizen doing the selling must be turning over his or her “personal
gun collection”, and that is a tricky part of the law to for the ATF to enforce.
I think there should be federal legislation put in place that would mandate private
gun sells be done thru a licensed firearm dealer. The gun dealer could run the person purchasing
the gun to make sure he or she isn’t a criminal, and record the seller’s name
and address.
I think
Obama is putting his focus on the wrong part of the issue. I know it sounds cliché
but guns don’t kill people. People kill people. The people using these guns to
do these things need to be in some way dealt with or “helped”. It looks to me
like stricter gun laws will just hurt an American citizens chances should he or
she needs to defend him or herself. That’s my perspective on the issue.
I agree with Caleb's original-editorial blog that he wrote. Even with the elementary shooting it is devastating and hits close to home for everyone and especially parents. Guns are not the problem they are getting into the wrong hands. As a person who sells guns I think that the personal selling of guns leaves you open to nothing but trouble. The problem is that when a personal sell happens there is no paper trail and if a crime is committed then ATF will end up at the last known owner. Well if this person sold it on craigslist then he/or she will be in a lot of trouble. When a sell is done with a licensed firearm dealer the form 4473 has to be filled out and ran through the NICS system. This too may sound good, but if the person filling it out has never been in trouble they could just as easily lie on the form and pass. When I obtained my license the ATF agent told me that even if they pass you can still refuse to sell the firearm if they look suspicious. Looks can be deceiving though, this person if crazy can go and commit a horrible offense. The ways to obtain a gun do need to be stricter, but putting a limit on the capacity of rounds in a gun is not the way to fix the problem. All that Obama did was make everyone rush out and stock up because they felt that their 2nd Amendment was being a fringed upon. If private sells are to be done through a licensed dealer then this would help keep felons from obtaining guns, but the issue still lies with the people that haven’t been adjudicated mentally defective by a court. So, yes Caleb is correct guns don’t kill people, people kill people, the gun is just there and they made the decision to use it.
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