Gun culture has been a huge part of America throughout its history. Americans have taken the right of owning firearms as a guaranteed constitutional promise. The debate around gun control is one of the most polarizing controversies in America. There have been several debates over the interpretation and relevance of the second amendment. Two key methodologies have been the main sides of the popular demands: the legal and the criminological. The question that is always raised was whether more gun control laws reduce gun crime, or deprive citizens of an effective way of self-defense.
Right after every mass shooting takes place, the public grieves after seeing television screens flooding with news, victims’ families, and activists. Calls to actions from the public rise on the next day demanding change and stricter laws against gun ownership. However, with the existence of such a resilient corporation like the National Riffle Association (NRA) it’s rare to get any actual legislation to pass. The American NRA is the strongest by comparison to any pro-guns’ lobby in any other country. From the time the NRA focused its agenda on supporting the citizens’ rights to own and carry firearms even after several mass shootings, including but not limited to, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Navy Yard, and Virginia Tech catastrophes no substantial legislation took place as asked by the majority of public.
Following the massacres, a NRA representative puts on the defending coat and comes up to redirect the blame for gun crimes on “those people” who use the guns for killing, express guns as tools of protection instead of violence, seek a sustaining support from gun owners, give firearms a positive implication as a symbol of freedom, and spread the theory of “guns don’t kill people. People kill people”. Over the years, they have mastered the usage of fear to affect their supporters and intrude ideas into their minds to get them to take actions they encourage. They’ve been reframing the subject such that the politicians who vote to gun control laws be portrayed in campaigns advertisements as in support of government control and abuse of power violating the constitutional right of citizens guaranteed by the second amendment. However, a lot of effort been made to pass policies hoping for a change and aiming to reduce gun violence and deaths as much as possible nation wise.
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Regarding firearms possession, federal laws divide citizens into two main groups: some with criminal record or mental illness that prohibits them from owning firearms and basically everyone else. Realistically, in a gun-rich easy-access environment like America it’s hard to control the chances of high-risk citizens to find firearms (Snyder, 1993). The current governing way was created by the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), that required dealers to obtain a Federal Firearm License (FFL) to be able to send interstate shipments. Moreover, a licensed dealer is required by the GCA to ask customers to fill out form #4473 stating that they don’t have criminal record or other disqualifying conditions. Although, under the same law dealers aren’t required to validate those reported forms. For that, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was implemented and expanded to conclude handguns, shotguns, and riffles. The act requires the dealers to conduct a background check on customers and wait for results before selling firearms with high hopes of reducing gun violence by keeping firearms out of high-risk citizens’ possession. The Brady Law decreased the number of firearms sold to customers after background check as many of ineligible customers were declined to own firearms. While the Brady Law is necessary but alone is still insufficient.
The Brady Law only applies to licensed firearm dealers and from a nationally demonstrative sample of gun owners more than 40 percent of firearm purchases are from private sales which criminals always target (Vittes et al., 2013). Another national survey of convicts indicates that nearly 80 percent handguns used in crimes where acquired through private purchases (Webster et al., 2013a). Along with straw purchasers who buy firearms for others as with Sandy Hook elementary school shooters. It’s a necessity to control and track the massive loophole of private firearm sales as 96.1% of offenders said they gotten a firearm through a venue that didn’t obligate a background check including family, friends, or private sales (Vittes, Vernick & Wenbster 2013).
For that, more in depth background checks or universal background checks and firearms tracing policy is urgent. It aims to prevent as much firearms diversions as possible to criminals. Tracing process would require buyers to apply for a license with a law enforcement agency with photographs and fingerprints for private sales and gun shows. An observational study of gun shows found that undocumented firearms sales and straw sales are six times more in states that don’t regulate private sales compared with California that does. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia already have a system of extending background checks to private sales and a broad adoption of that policy nation wise will reduce gun violence across the country.
According to Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) findings, Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho gun policies are extremely similar. All three states issue a concealed firearms permit to any eligible purchaser who passes a weapons safety course. Researchers collected violent crime data from 2002 till 2012 and found out it wasn’t until 2012 that gun control policies drastically diverged between the states. Colorado recently passed stricter gun control policies like magazine restrictions and background checks for firearm purchases. While Arizona adopted lenient gun control policies that includes canceling the need of permit to carry concealed firearm for eligible gun owners. Idaho maintained a middle ground in terms of gun control policy and allowing carry concealed firearms permits without restrictions. Even though the three states were similar in the beginning, the violent crime rates varied after the new policies. Arizona outranked Colorado and Idaho by having the highest total violent crime along with the highest rates of murder, robbery, and provoked assault. The statistics are for 2012 while in the previous ten years the three states had similar crime patterns.
Usually at the federal level if one has convicted of a felony will not be able to purchase a gun after background check. However, not all convictions for violent crimes were considered felonies or been pled down to misdemeanors afterwards, thus, will not be considered in regular background checks (Campbell et al., 2003). Thirteen states extend background checks beyond just domestic violence to cover other violent misdemeanors as temporary and permanent restraining orders. For example, New Jersey forbids firearm possession by citizens convicted for a crime of penalty of minimum 6 months’ imprisonment, in contrast, 13 other states have standards weaker than national federal ones. Another aspect is that laws aren’t properly enforced and some have other burdens of proving that a lot of those found not guilty will have the tendency of violence and usage of firearms in crimes. Consequently, when criminals don’t fulfill enough evidence they become eligible to purchase guns.
Politically, we are in a rut. The war between pro-guns and anti-guns only benefits the gun lobby as it keeps all gun control laws in an infinite loop without any actions. The proposed policy will ensure that all gun purchases whether from a licensed dealer, gun shows, online or private sales to be traced to protect American citizens’ lives. The policy has been applied to nineteen states already and significantly reduced gun violence crimes. Not applying it to the rest of states is questionable. It’s like boarding a plane with a security system that let people choose between going through security measures and skipping them. I believe that the system should rather make the choice and require background checks to private sales.
