*Background — Significance of this issue:
-Significant Increase in USA Gun Violence. Figures from the Gun Violence Archive – a non-profit research database -shows that the number of mass shootings has gone up significantly in recent years. In each of the three years [from 2020 to 2022] there have been more than 600 mass shootings, almost two a day on average.
The deadliest such attack, in Las Vegas in 2017, killed more than 50 people and left 500 wounded. The vast majority of mass shootings, however, leave fewer than 10 people dead.
While the US does not have a single definition for “mass shootings”, the Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed. Their figure includes shootings that happen both in homes and in public places.
*Talking Points:
-Supreme Court Said: An Individual’s Right to Own a Gun Has Restrictions
–Most Gun Owners Support Restrictions on Gun Ownership
–The Ten Year Ban on Assault Weapons Was Effective
–More Guns Do Not Make Us Safer
–Danger of Having Guns in the House
-Supreme Court Clearly Said that an Individual’s Right to Own a Gun Has Restrictions.
The Second Amendment states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. “ For over two hundred years the courts held that the second amendment did not include an individual’s right to gun ownership. In 2008, in District of Columbia vs Heller, five conservative supreme court justices decided that an individual had a right to own a gun. However, the decision noted that the right was subject to restrictions and regulations. The majority opinion, written by Justice Scalia, states:
“…. Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. …. nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms …” To read the full text of Justice Scalia’s opinion, click here.
-Most Citizens and Gun Owners Support Restrictions on Gun Ownership.
In a poll on gun ownership restrictions, the majority support background checks and an assault weapons ban. The McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s latest Mood of the Nation Poll, was conducted the poll from May 12-18, 2023. To see the report, click here.
Senator Chris Murphy in his book published in 2020, The Violence Inside Us, recounts a discussion with a gun owner that supports the results of the survey. Senator Murphy argues that we should accept the view that individuals have a right to own a gun and productively focus energy and efforts on ensuring that there are appropriate restrictions on the how and who and where and what issues of gun ownership.
Chris Murphy’s book provides an excellent description of the gun violence situation in this country. A review of the book by Dareen Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, states “The Violence Inside Us is not a book by a politician — it is a book by a father, a neighbor, a citizen — and it offers a comprehensive and deeply personal accounting of the entrenched role of guns in America, as well as a path forward to break this cycle of senseless violence and the toll it has taken on our society, especially our nation’s children”
–Ten Year Ban on Assault Weapons Was Effective.
The ban on assault weapons that was in effect for ten years from 2004 to 2014, was effective in reducing gun violence. To see a report about the significant reduction in mass shootings, cluck here.
-More Guns Do Not Make Us Safer.
Some argue that the best protection against a criminal with a gun is a good person with a gun. However, as Senator Chris Murphy points out in his book The Violence Inside Us, “… if more guns led to less crime, America would be the safest place on earth…” However, the USA is far from being the safest country. Places with higher rates of gun ownership have more murders than places with fewer firearms per capita.
–Guns in the Home Can Be Dangerous.
In an article in the NY Times of April 22, 2023 by Nickolas Kristof, a gun owner, states that it is a delusion to think that having a gun in the house makes us safer. In fact, “researchers have found repeatedly that a gun in the house makes people more likely to be murdered, not less. People living in homes with firearms have higher risks for dying by homicide, according to a 2022 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.” To read the article, click here.
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