Firearm and Gun Lobby Essay

Submitted By spencerhadley
Words: 1866
Pages: 8

Spencer Hadley
Gun control?

Shortly after a horrific tragedy in Sandy hook elementary there have been many cases and wide open discussions about the gun control in today’s world. Anybody can have the right to own a firearm but is it safe? We hear too often: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Fair enough. But guns change how people kill people, and they change how people view killing. When someone has a gun the question of how they respond to a situation changes, for better or worse, because they have an option that they didn’t have before. These changes are what we need to be discussing if we want to be able to advocate effectively for or against gun control. We need to ask ourselves questions like whether guns make individuals more or less inclined towards confrontation.
I don’t know or believe that gun control would have prevented these tragedies, but I do believe that a fear of gun control will prevent us from understanding them. Gun ownership is a cultural thing, and discussing whether gun control is right or wrong requires us to acknowledge this. We have to first be able to admit that gun ownership changes a person. Once we are able to do this we will be able to discuss how it changes a person, and whether this change is bad or good. It is only after this debate it has become the focus on our world. http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/24/politics/congress-gun-control an there be a solution to America's gun problems? Anderson Cooper looks at both sides of the debate in "Guns Under Fire: an AC360º Town Hall Special" Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

Washington (CNN) -- On one side were pegboard panels mounted with various assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons -- including a Bushmaster similar to the one used in last month's Newtown school massacre.

Behind the stage stood police officers supporting a renewed ban on such firepower. One by one, victims of gun violence told their brief stories and expressed support for a new federal ban being proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein on some assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons.

Almost six weeks after the Connecticut shooting rampage that killed 20 first graders, Feinstein said she planned to introduce her measure later Thursday, with Reps. Carolyn McCarthy of New York and Ed Perlmutter of Colorado doing the same in the House.

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Feinstein's proposal would upgrade an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and also outlaw ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

She said the goal is to "dry up the supply of these weapons over time."

"These massacres don't seem to stop," the California Democrat lamented, listing notorious rampages of past years known by the lone name of their locations -- Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Tucson and Oak Creek.

"We should be outraged at how easy it is" for attackers to get hold of the semi-automatic weapons or large-capacity magazines used in those slaughters, Feinstein told the event at the U.S. Capitol that she organized.

Sandy Hook probe to extend until summer

Her legislation is opposed by the nation's powerful gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association. That means that despite a push by the White House and Democrats for tougher gun control steps, Feinstein's full measure is given little chance of winning congressional approval.

In a statement on Thursday, the NRA said that Feinstein "has been trying to ban guns from law-abiding citizens for decades."

"The American people know gun bans do not work and we are confident Congress will reject Senator Feinstein's wrong-headed approach," the organization added.

In a sign of the gun lobby's influence, a nine-day sports and outdoor show scheduled to take place in Pennsylvania next month was postponed Thursday because the NRA withdrew its support over the decision by