Gun Control in America
Gun Control in America
On March 24, 1998, firing from the woods overlooking their school, 13-year-old Andrew Golden and 11-year-old Mitchell Johnson shot and killed four middle school students and a teacher and injured ten other students in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The two boys had a semiautomatic M-1 carbine with a large ammunition magazine, two other rifles, seven handguns and more than 500 rounds of ammunition which they took from the home of one of the boy?s grandfather, who had a large arsenal of weapons left unsecured. Officers arrested the two boys as they ran through the wooded area near the school, and they were convicted on five counts of capital murder and ten counts of first-degree battery in September 1998.
I want to inform people what I have learned about gun control in America. Firearms and their consequences are so pervasive in our society that they seem to be standard fare. Each day newspapers in major cities report injuries and deaths from guns and show photographs of their bereaved families. Movie advertisements scream titles that promise plenty of bloodshed, illustrated by guns and though characters who flaunt them. A casual flip through several television channels often reveals a succession of handguns, automatic riffles, and murders. Facts are much more sobering and don?t reflect the justice we?ve grown accustomed to seeing on televisions and in movies. The fact is that 22,000 people die each year because of firearms. Annually 12,000 people commit suicide with handguns and another 1,000 die from unintentional fatal injuries. Every year, there are about 9,000 handgun homicides in this country. In addition, there are more than 200,000 injuries due to firearms annually (Anderson 26).
Handgun Control works to enact sensible gun control legislation in the United State but does not seek to ban guns. The Brady Bill, which was signed into law by President Clinton and took effect February 28, 1994, establishes a national five business day
On March 24, 1998, firing from the woods overlooking their school, 13-year-old Andrew Golden and 11-year-old Mitchell Johnson shot and killed four middle school students and a teacher and injured ten other students in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The two boys had a semiautomatic M-1 carbine with a large ammunition magazine, two other rifles, seven handguns and more than 500 rounds of ammunition which they took from the home of one of the boy?s grandfather, who had a large arsenal of weapons left unsecured. Officers arrested the two boys as they ran through the wooded area near the school, and they were convicted on five counts of capital murder and ten counts of first-degree battery in September 1998.
I want to inform people what I have learned about gun control in America. Firearms and their consequences are so pervasive in our society that they seem to be standard fare. Each day newspapers in major cities report injuries and deaths from guns and show photographs of their bereaved families. Movie advertisements scream titles that promise plenty of bloodshed, illustrated by guns and though characters who flaunt them. A casual flip through several television channels often reveals a succession of handguns, automatic riffles, and murders. Facts are much more sobering and don?t reflect the justice we?ve grown accustomed to seeing on televisions and in movies. The fact is that 22,000 people die each year because of firearms. Annually 12,000 people commit suicide with handguns and another 1,000 die from unintentional fatal injuries. Every year, there are about 9,000 handgun homicides in this country. In addition, there are more than 200,000 injuries due to firearms annually (Anderson 26).
Handgun Control works to enact sensible gun control legislation in the United State but does not seek to ban guns. The Brady Bill, which was signed into law by President Clinton and took effect February 28, 1994, establishes a national five business day
Bibliography: Works Consulted Forum, ?The Founding Father?s Word,? http://www.whattheheck.com/forum/gunmessages/866.html. November 14, 2000. Looksmart Live,?A case for Gun Control,? http://live.looksmart.com/cgi-bin/framer?http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zj5j-gttl/guns.htm. Undated Posting. Downloaded Nov. 06, 2000. BBS,?Bigotry, Symbolism, and Ideology in the Battle over GunControl,? http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~karl/firearms/bigotry.html. 1992. Downloaded Nov. 06, 2000. NRA, ?NRA Publications,? http://www.nrahq.org/ . Undated Posting. Downloaded Nov. 06, 2000. Hand Gun Control, ?Get the Facts,? http://www.handguncontrol.org/ . Undated Posting. Downloaded Nov. 06, 2000.