Gun Control usage and International
Considerations
Gun control
Gun
control relates to the domestic regulation of firearm manufacturing, trade,
ownership, usage, and transport, particularly concerning the small arms
category of firearms (revolvers and self-loading handguns, shotguns and
pistols, automatic rifles, submachine guns, small machine guns) (Greene-Colozzi & Silva, 2020). Gun control is classified as restricting the public’s access to
weapons and certain types of guns (J. D. Brown & Goodin, 2018).
Introduction
Gun control refers to the policy, regulation, and
execution of laws to restrict access to, ownership of, or use of weapons,
including firearms. Artillery policy remains one of several nations’ most
controversial and emotional issues. The debate is mostly focused on whether
limits on individual arms-bearing rights represent an unconstitutional violation
of freedom and whether the connection is arms and crime. Advocates of weapons
regulation contend that strict application of arms control legislation saves
life and avoids abuse. In contrast to these, proponents of arms control argue
that restricting the supply of handguns guarantees that civilians have enough
self-defense and that more arms are available in safer communities. In various
measures taken by Congress since the 1930s, gun control has been shown (Metzger, 2017). It is difficult to explain
why there is weapons safety. According to the Second Amendment, the United
States government insists that civilians have the freedom to bear arms.
However, a lack of firearms control has resulted in several reports of gun
abuse, prompting Congress to take action. Gun violence is at the forefront of gun
control in the United States, from the murders of important elected figures to
mass shootings (Soto, Chheda, & Soto, 2020).
A debate on gun control has
erupted, with various groups debating their respective positions on gun crime
and gun control measures in light of school shootings and homicides. For
example, there is an assertion that most of America’s daily firearm violence is
concentrated in the poorest, most culturally isolated areas. There is high
unemployment, poor school districts, and high levels of police/personnel
suspicion in neighborhoods. The study reports that Africans make up about 13%
of the total population in general cases of gun killings. Besides, about
fifteen of 30 people killed each day by arms are dark-skinned me (Bitz, 2017).
Gun control,
usage, or misusage
Weapons are
versatile tools that can supply meat, kill creatures and rats, give people a
relaxing experience and defend lives and property from illegal predators. They
are also useful tools for supplying food for the table, and they are especially
common in rural life, where wildlife is both a threat and a leisure
opportunity. However, with America increasingly technological and violent, the
demand for guns was largely driven by the need to stand up against other
people.(Finley & Esposito, 2019).
International Considerations
Gun regulation
is a global concern, apiece nation taking the exclusive authority to govern
weapons inside its boundaries (Burkle, 2020). There are strict weapons protection regulations in
effect in the vast majority of western countries. Except in some conditions,
Japan limits possession and use of all weapons. The EU has prohibited the
transport of arms(R. B. Brown, 2020). Germany requires certain guns to be possessed so long
as that individual meets the license for firearms(Amoroso, Frank, Noel,
Lucy, & Guglielmo, 2018). The possession of handguns is still banned in Canada
and the European Union.
The Historical
Roots of Gun Regulation
As the control
of weapons imposes moral limitations upon weapons, it has its roots in ancient
Rome to protect democratic societies. Weapons are used in Rome as a way of
maintaining permanent armies. To prohibit these armies from undermining or
overthrowing civil government, the Rubicon crossing of military equipment has
been outlawed in Roman legislation (Fezzi, 2020). The law remained valid until Julius Caesar challenged
it by retaining a standing Army as the Roman emperor, a historic act that
reminds of the decline of the Roman Empire(Strauss, 2020).Both the Bill of Rights (officially a Declaration of the
Rights and Liberties of the Topic, 1689) and the United States Constitution
contain provisions that forbid the preservation of permanent armed forces
during peace times without the permission of the legislative branch.(Jacob, 2019).
In England,
arms were also governed in socio-economic terms by Parliament and the Crown.(Jacob, 2019). In 1649, John Sadler wrote in his book English Reformer
and MP. “The Rights of the Kingdom,” (Coster, 2018) “Men ought indeed to have Arms, and them to keep
in Readiness for Defense of the King and Kingdom,” (Charles, 2009) but Senate demarcated which menfolk were to “provide
and bear arms, how, and when, and where.” It is worth noting that
firearms were used primarily as ways of protecting the realm in general. Even
because of this, though, the government regulated arms closely to ensure they
were ready for public safety and were not in risky hands. For example, during
the reign of Henry VIII (1509–47), a ban on “weapons” and
“self-protection devices” was enforced on all cities, settlements,
marketplaces or other churches but with such a fuss (a practice whereby
criminals were pursued with cries and sounds of alarm)(Krouse, 2012).Other gun-control legislation passed by Henry VIII
included limits on the length of firearms, who could own them, and where and
when they could be shot(Wright, Rossi, &
Daly, 1983).
In England,
gun safety was not a matter for parliamentary debate. From the mid 17th to the
late 18th centuries, however, parliamentarians had enacted legislation aimed at
abolishing weapons restrictions and the possession and maintenance of guns by
English housemates to defend the territory. In the Convention which drafted the
English Declaration of Rights in 1689 for example,(Jacob, 2019)Thomas Erle, a former
general and associate of Legislature, suggested that “every substantial
householder in every town or city should be equipped with a good musket in case
of invasion.” An analogous suggestion was prepared in 1693 to encourage
every Protestant to hold a musket “for the protection of the country.”
(Jacob, 2019)Such plans, however,
collapsed because they would “arm the mob” and hence were
deemed “not so safe for every government.”
Of course, security safety
wasn’t the only excuse for the enforcement in England of gun laws. Gun rules
have also been applied to encourage game shooting or the right of hunters to
protect gambling as well as to stop crime and assassinations. In the 1950s,
Scottish thinker and historian Adam Ferguson argued that, while there would be
“few domestic in comfort,” this could not “determine us from the
steps needed” to prepare the people for “our own defense, against an
enemy from abroad.” Some Jenyns, the writer and member of the English
Parliament, also defended arms control in order to promote the establishment of
national militia.
Although “accidents [such as murder] could sometimes occur,” he
concluded that it didn’t matter because “any man” in the militia
would “beget three Children before he kills one Man.”
At the end of the day, no such arguments have
any bearing on England’s former arms rules. In mid-18th century, when militia
reform was enacted, George II ensured that the local lords kept all the militia
arms. This was a custom from the 1550s, during the reign of Mary I(Johnson,
2018).
Arms Control in United States
The United States colonies had various laws
on security, terrorism, hunting, global protection, and even arms slavery, like
England. Nevertheless, in two ways the American colonies differed from the
rules of the British arms control (Cornell &
DeDino, 2004). The first is
that the American colonies, besides the restrictions imposed upon the use,
regulation and possession of weapons. Second, a chosen social militia was not
commissioned by the American colonies. They recommended a bill to keep handguns
and other state protection provisions from men of all backgrounds.
The works of
Niccol Machiavelli, an Italian political scientist and theorist, James
Harrington, a British philosopher, Sidney and John Trenched were all based on
the value of weapons to defend the needs of the citizens of the republic. In
the second amendment, the Constitution of the United States, which states that,
“a well-regulated militia, which is necessary for the defence, shall
not infringe upon the right of people to keep and bear arms,” was
codified further by this ideology of protected citizenship, where every person
is a soldier and every soldier is a citizen. In particular in the late 19th and
early 21st centuries, the precise meaning of the Second Amendment was heavily
debated. The Supreme Court has recognized an individual’s right in District of
Columbia v. Heller (2008) to possess military guns without serving a national
militia and to use handguns for self-defense within the family (Larson, 2008).Furthermore, state legislatures are prohibited from
enacting gun-control laws that contradicts the terms of their individual state
constitutions (Pough, 2018).
In conclusion, gun safety in America remains
a major concern and various American organizations view gun control laws, as
well as gun crime and mass shootings, differently. In either case, according to
reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and gunpolicy.org, the general
handgun crime rate in the US is about 16 times higher than in France. So, in
order to save the largest number of lives, we must regulate not only everyday
crime but also mass shootings by the enforcement of gun control laws.
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