Economics Americans have had the

Americans have had the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment

since September 25, 1789. This date is important to the citizens of the United

States. The Second Amendment is important and this right should be preserved

(van Alstyne, William). In this paper I will review tragedies that were related to

using a gun and/or warfare. There have been numerous terroristic attacks using

firearms in the past which include the most recent Paris attacks, family planning

bombings, and the California school shooting. I believe that the causality numbers

could have been decreased dramatically if the civilians had the opportunity and

freedom to have been armed.

There have been numerous Supreme Court cases regarding the Second

Amendment. I will give a brief summary of the most known court cases regarding

the Second Amendment. McDonald v. Chicago, this case was regarding the

Second Amendment, and also about the protection of the city’s (Chicago, Illinois)

people. The people of Chicago, led by Otis McDonald wanted the city of Chicago

to revise their law that stated that no one was allowed to carry a handgun in the

city. McDonald’s counterargument was that the city was being taken over by drug

dealers and gangs. The main provisions of the Chicago law in the challenge

included: A ban on the registration of handguns, a requirement that guns be

registered prior to the purchase of a gun, a requirement to re-register guns yearly,

and a law making any gun permanently non-registrable if its original registration

lapses.

The outcome of McDonald v. Chicago was more of a symbolic victory for gun

rights advocates. The outcome of the court was to restrict its ruling to the Chicago

and Oak Park laws, sparing gun restrictions to the people of the city. Many of the

people that closely watched this case believe that Chicago did not bring the 14th

Amendment into perspective. The 14th Amendment addresses citizenship rights

and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to

former slaves following the American Civil War. This also includes citizen’s rights

regarding having their rights to own a gun for protection of themselves and their

family (Denning, Brannon P., and Glenn Harlan Reynolds).

In order to legally own a gun, in the United States, one must follow regulations that

are set forth by the U.S. National Government and NRA or National Rifle

Association. September 25th, 1789 was a significant date for the beginning of the

United States because the Second Amendment allowed individuals to regulate

Militias (Kates). The importance of security for a Free State, allowed individuals

to also keep and bear Arms. This idea shall not be infringed in today’s society.

Two years later in 1791, The Second Amendment was sanctioned continuing to

allow a person the right to protect their own person as well as the right to bear

Arms. This brought forth the assembly of the NRA.

The NRA (National Rifle Association) became effective in 1871. This

particular foundation was founded by Colonel William C. Church and Gen. George

Wingate, both Union soldiers. Both Church and Wingate founded the NRA to

promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis. Civil War General

Ambrose Burnside served as the NRA’s first president for the organization

(Sugarmann, Josh). This concept was also recognized by the United States

President which was expanded to incorporate a bill titled the National Firearms

Act.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1934, founded the National Firearms

Act. This bill was brought in to effect due to the nation’s popular gangster culture

on the early ‘30’s. Roosevelt anticipated that this particular bill would lower the

amount of automatic weapons that were being purchased by people, specifically

various gangs and the Mafia. Weapons Roosevelt specifically targeted to rid the

American streets were short-barreled shotguns, rifles, and gun silencers that were

popular among people in the gangs. This led Roosevelt to summon all gun

manufactures and gun sales to a $220 tax (O’Reilly, Kenneth). This amount may

not seem like much today, but during the Great Depression it was more than a

month’s income for most families.

In today’s world, the $220 tax is pay money for most individuals. The

equivalent today would be approximately $2,525 on each firearm. Along with the

tax penalty, all buyers were also required to fill out paperwork subject to the

Treasury Department. In 1938, Franklin D. Roosevelt was serving his 2nd term as

President of the United States and continued to receive praise for cleaning up the

streets of America and detaining some of the nation’s most notorious gangsters.

Congress joined Roosevelt in the Federal Firearms Act which was intended for

individuals that were involved in selling and shipping firearms through interstate or

foreign commerce channels. This act also implied a $1 annual fee for any person

that engaged in selling firearms to another person. If the seller of the firearms

obliged to the annual fee, the seller would then obtain a Federal Firearms License

from the Secretary of Commerce. For the first time, The Federal Firearms Act

demanded that the seller of the firearms keep record of the buyer, which were to

include their name and physical address. This act also prohibited gun sales to

anyone who was convicted of certain crimes or failed to obtain a firearm permit.

This process continued throughout the elections of many presidents after.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 raised much needed attention

pertaining to the concept of gun control. The gun that was used to assassinate

Kennedy a mail-ordered firearm that has been stated throughout history belonging

to Lee Harvey Oswald. This criminal act inspired the United States Congress to

revise the federal gun laws. In 1968, Congress revealed the Gun Control Act.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was due to the assassinations of Robert

Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. which were both found their demise due to

gun violence. This bill elaborated why licenses should be expanded. The reasons

when obtaining a license individual could not have been convicted of a felony, not

be engaging in illegal drug use, and must be mentally stable. One of the key

elements in this bill was the outlawing of mail order firearm sales, rifles, and

shotguns (Zimring, Franklin E.). Before this bill was erected, there was no way to

find out the age of the buyer. In order to purchase and carry a handgun, the

individual must be 21 or older (Utter, Glenn H.). In order to purchase a rifle or

shotgun the buyer must be at least 18 years of age. These conditions led to two

additional bills in 1986.

In 1986 the Congress introduced two new bills regarding gun and ammo control.

First, Congress enabled the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act. This bill

made it illegal for an individual to manufacture, import, or sell arming piercing

ammunition. This ammunition was better known during this time as “cop–killer”

bullets. These particular bullets had the ability to penetrate through bulletproof

vests and clothing that law enforcement would wear to protect themselves in the

line of duty. The second bill Congress concurrently erected along with the Law

Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 1986 was the Firearms Owners’ Protection

Act. This particular bill eased the sale of some guns such as handguns. It also gave

stricter and greater penalties for individuals that were using a particular firearm

when committing a crime. Persons who partook in crimes such as robberies or

burglaries received a harsher punishment when they were convicted of the crime

due to the particular firearm they used during the crime. Along with these

particular bills George W. Bush, in 1990, incorporated a bill to include areas such

as school zones safer.

He and Congressed passed the Crime Control Act. Though, this bill was initially

passed to make school zones drug-free zones, the bill also has intense penalties for

any individual who was in possession or had discharged a firearm on school

property (The Library of Congress, 2015). With this particular bill in place as the

years passed President Bill Clinton felt that there was an intense need to include

semiautomatic assault weapons.

In the year 1994, there was an up rise of crime in America by using firearms.

Congress and President Bill Clinton initiated the Violent Crime Control and Law

Enforcement Act. This bill included the banning the manufacturing, possession,

and importation of new semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity

ammunition feeding devices from the use by civilians. According to “United

States: Gun Ownership and the Supreme Court,” this bill also prohibited juveniles

from possessing or selling handguns (The Library of Congress, 2015).

The amount of juveniles possessing firearms increased greatly and President

Bill Clinton seen an intense need to try and control the situation at hand. In January

1999, the tragedy of Columbine High School was brought to the attention of the

nation when two juveniles, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris chose to attend their

high school that cold morning setting out to cause intense harm to as many as they

could accomplish in the time allotted. These two individuals used various weapons

to impose such a massive amount of damage which in theory, was due to impulsive

feelings which could have been sorted out in another way. According to Stretsky

and Hogan, the weapons used in the crime belonged to their parents as well as

retrieved in other illegal ways (2001). This is a good example of why gun laws