Gun Control Issues.

One of the prolific ongoing debates in the United States for the current and previous century is the issue of gun control. About 97,820 people are shot in a gun-related incidents each year. The Constitution of the United States states in it's second amendment that: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" This statement is central to the debate and the battle between tight and loose constructionists of the Constitution is still ongoing. The web-pages I chose represent two sides of the argument, i.e. those in favour of gun control and those in favour of gun ownership. The Pro-Gun website I selected was the NRA's official web-page, the National Rifle Association was created in 1871 to educate the population about gun safety and to represent different gun owners, it has since grown in membership and is now a major lobbying group. The website is essentially a portal to many different pages such as NRA-ILA which details current proposed bills and news articles on guns; including a 'Spotlight' feature on an 'armed citizen' who took down a armed thief at a convenience store, highlighting the benefits of gun ownership in citizen law-enforcement, which is one of the key arguments the NRA uses. Other websites are focused on gun safety and where to find gun clubs near you. One interesting article was the "Outrage of the week", which criticised journalist Alex Wagner for attacking the second amendment, however it didn't really give reasons why the second amendment was necessary apart from the fact that it protected freedom. However overall the NRA website does not give out a list of the benefits of gun ownership, which is understandable seeing as they are currently 'on top'. The Pro-Gun control website I chose was the Brady Campaign website, The Brady Campaign is named after James Brady, who was permanently injured as a result of an assassination attempt on Ronald Regan in 1981. It seeks to promote legislation which regulates and controls gun ownership, such as banning assault rifles and large ammo clips. The website has many lists of statistics such as the number of gun related injuries and that higher household gun ownership correlates with higher rates of homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. Overall I felt that the Brady Campaign had a very strong argument, but the problem is is that cat is already out of the bag in America and simply trying to restrict gun ownership is futile. The other problem is is that if guns are banned violent crime is not going to be reduced, it will instead switch to knife crime or some other means. So I would agree that legislation to prevent people with criminal records is necessary I feel that gun ownership is a sign of a covenant between a government and it's people and that it trusts them to look after themselves.