Gun Control in the U.S
Gun control is one of the most controversial topics people discussed nowadays. The data showed the U.S had 393 million guns that own by Americans, but there is only a number of 326 million Americans in this country. Since there are too many guns in the country, people were asking gun control in order to protect people’s safety. What is really gun control? Basically, gun control is referring to the right to carry a handgun in public, the background check by the FBI and what is the limit of purchasing a gun. People will come up with a question saying what would it protect our daily safety. Gun control helps society get less violence from the firearm and created series of policies. For example, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act allows the gun dealer to testified whether the buyer is qualified to purchase a gun based on the buyer’s background check.
There are some of the something called the “loophole” in these policies that eventually lead to some of the shooting incidents in the Country. The gun show loophole is the most common one in the society, Based on a statistic provided in the Gifford gun center, there are over 5200 gun shows hosted in the country in 2017. If you do a little calculation, that is over 100 gun shows per week. And the gun show loophole allows the gun buyers to buy a firearm from the private dealers without a gun background check. All that they need to purchase a gun is a simple ID. In that case, some criminals can purchase the weapon they need from the gun show.
Another loophole is still existing is call charleston loophole; which is the failure to complete the background check on time and therefore allow the dealer to make the decision whether he should sell the guns to the buyer. Based on statistics there were 3.59% of 8.6 million background checks; that is over 300,000 guns were sold without a background check on 2017. Dylann Roof was capable of purchase a gun after the failure of his background check. And after a few months, he shot nine people in the church.(Johnson, D, 2016)
In addition, there is also another loophole call the straw men. People can ask their family members or member to buy them a gun. In the gun policies of the country, you are allowed to give your gun to your son or daughter, even neighbors without the background check. In other word, you can ask your family member to buy a gun for you, and later give it to you without any procedure.
The loophole in this federal law is having a significant impact on this society. The purpose of gun control is to protect people and try to avoid the resident from danger. With the existing of these loopholes, criminals can easily get access to the firearm and cause unexpected effects.
Anon. n.d. “Gun Shows.” Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Retrieved December 1, 2019 (https://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/policy-areas/gun-sales/gun-shows/).
Johnson, David. 2016. “‘Charleston Loophole’ Put 2,892 Guns In Wrong Hands.” Time. Retrieved December 1, 2019 (https://time.com/4512255/charleston-loophole/).
