Gun Control is Necessary to Reduce Gun Violence in Our Society

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Gun Control is Necessary to Reduce Gun Violence in Our Society
Introduction
State laws and federal legislation governing the ownership of guns in the United States have created an imminent threat to the internal security of the country. Although most citizens with gun ownership rights term it as personal defense, it has been evident that the use of guns in the U.S. has been on the rise over the years. The increase in the usage of guns by civilians has not yet restricted the type of firearms that can be owned by individuals allowing persons to get ownership rights to rifles and guns that have a high ammunition power. Rowhani-Rahbar et al (1765) note that there has been an increased rate of shooting on the streets of major cities in the U.S. in the past decade. Mass shootings in schools, in public and other gatherings such as churches, have been a common incidence in the United States. These cases of gun violence are attributed to uncontrolled gun ownership in the U.S. This paper argues that gun control through performing background checks, increasing age limits, and banning the sale of assault weapon ban will significantly reduce gun violence in our society.
Performing background checks and pushing for laws related to scrutinizing gun purchases and checking on the age limits before making gun sales would reduce gun violence in the United States. Following the Florida shooting, President Trump had vowed to strengthen the laws to ensure that seriously mentally ill individual could not gain access to firearms at the shelves (Wolf np). After another shooting in Las Vegas that killed over 50 people attending an open-air concert, Trump promised that it was time to get serious on gun regulation talks. However, the president has been seen nixing on important regulations such as the one finalized by Obama's administration requiring the Social Security Administration to present information to the national gun background check system about certain mentally-ill individuals quarterly (Wolf np). On February 28, 2017, a year before the shooting, Trump had signed a measure that struck down the regulation that aimed at ensuring that guns are out of access to severely mentally-ill people. According to Wolf (np), the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union also opposed the regulation and it failed to pass leaving Americans unsafe. However, background checks would reduce the number of shootings and increase safety in the United States.
In terms of age limit to buy a rifle, it would be appropriate to impose a new age limit and Trump had floated the idea of increasing the age limit from 18 to 21 (Zanona, 2018). The federal law provides that gun dealers sell handguns only to persons above 21, although licensed gun dealers can sell "long guns" to anyone above 18 years. Going strong on the age of purchase would ensure guns do not get into the hands of children who do not know how to use them. Instead of increasing the age limit for gun ownership, Trump tends to take another direction of offering firearm training to school workers (BBC News np). However, the White House had unveiled a proposal following the s...