Gun violence in the United States

Gun Violence

According to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (2010), the agenda of the National Rifle Association "includes weakening the requirements to obtain a concealed handgun permit, expanding the number of places...where concealed handguns can be carried, and enacting "Shoot First" laws that remove an individual's duty to retreat from potentially violent confrontations." The aggressive support of Second Amendment rights has possibly gone beyond the boundaries of personal freedom. As Lott (2000) points out, the net effect of gun control laws on gun violence statistics is difficult to determine due to flaws in research methodology and the variance in laws from state to state, county to county. One thing is sure: gun violence remains a tremendous problem in the United States.

The Legal Community Against Violence (2010) points out that gun violence alone leads to about 100,000 injuries and 30,000 deaths per year. Over half of all gun deaths are suicides, and over 40% are homicides (Legal Community Against Violence 2010). The level of gun ownership is statistically linked to both murder and suicide rates, worldwide (Gun Control Network 2007). Gun violence is the "second most frequent cause of death overall for Americans aged 15 to 24 (Violence Policy Center nd). The prevalence and severity of gun violence warrants a pointed and proactive public policy response.

The United States especially contends with a major gun violence epidemic. Gun violence rates are three to four times as high in the United States than in any other developed nation in the world (Gun Control Network 2007). Clearly, the gun lobby clings to the Second Amendment without taking into account sociological and criminological data. The Second Amendment protects the rights of Americans to protest their government if that government should become tyrannical; the Second Amendment does not protect the rights of Americans to proliferate gun violence and create a society riddled with gun crime (Cornell 2006).

Background of the Problem

Before the War of Independence, the Colonialists brought guns with them for "utilitarian purposes," (DeConde 2001, p. 17). Those purposes included the basic fact that hunting was the main source of sustenance for many colonialists, and that skirmishes with indigenous peoples were common (DeConde 2001). As trade with Native Americans expanded into the exchange of items for European firearms, gun violence proliferated in the colonies (DeConde 2001). Thus, gun violence preceded the Second Amendment in the United States. The Second Amendment is not the root cause of the problem of gun violence. In fact, the Second Amendment is a crucial constitutional clause that protects the rights of citizens to rise up against the government in extreme political situations. The Second Amendment has been taken too far out of context.