Today the United States Senate passed a procedural bill that
will allow the Senate to start the process to consider additional gun control
laws. While it is a long way from
approving any measures, it was a great step towards passing laws expanding background
checks on gun purchases.
The issue of gun control took on a national priority in wake
to the tragedy in Connecticut in December.
Government representatives and citizens from regions across America were
horrified by the crazed actions of a man with a gun and his assault on innocent
school children. As with any inexplicable
situation, people look for answers and action.
Amongst other checks, the law under consideration would
require background checks to be conducted in private sales of weapons including
the transfer of weapons between family members.
Current law only requires background checks to be completed when a gun
is bought from a Federal Firearms Dealer, this does not include private transactions. According to CNN 80-90% of criminals obtained
their weapon from a family member, acquaintance or from a street
transaction.
While many are in favor of tighter gun control and
additional background checks, there are also many concerned additional background
checks may lead to requirements that are too expansive and infringe on our
constitutional right to bear arms provided by the second amendment. They are also not convinced additional
background checks would have prevented the tragedy at Sandy Hook. The National Rifle Association last week
proposed options they believe would make our schools safer. In addition to other security checks and
education, they were proposing the arming and training of teachers and other
school personnel.
What are your thoughts about gun control in the United
States? Even though schools have proven
to be some of the safest places for children, when something like Sandy Hook
happens, we evaluate potential changes, such as arming teachers. Of the two proposals presented, which do you
think would be more effective in reducing gun violence?
mckai- I think it gone way to far and I think teachers should carry a gun because it would just make it essayer to kill some one. making shore that this person ho carries the gun knows how to use and has to take hunters ed and if some how some one took all our guns away it would make us venerable against robers and murderers
ReplyDeleteKylee- My thoughts about gun control is that teacher should be able to carry weapons if they want and are licened. Also, I think teachers should be trained to handle situations such as what happened at Sandy Hook.
ReplyDeleteClaire- I feel neutral about gun control because it would be good to carry a gun, but there is really no need to (unless you get burglarized). It would also be good for a teacher to carry a gun if something happened like the Sandy Hook tragedy. On the other hand, if a teacher carries a gun, that would increase the chance of a student getting a hold of that gun under strict security, but it would be a very slim chance. I think that teachers should be able carry guns just in case something happens, then they will be prepared.
ReplyDeleteGrace- Gun control in the United States is getting out of hand. There are way too many people that don't have the common knowledge on how to handle a gun. Some people do know how to handle a gun responsibly and just use it for hunting or for self-defence. But then something could always go wrong, like someone becoming mentally ill. The more effective proposal in reducing gun violence would be more background checks because gun violence doesn't just happen in schools. It could happen anywhere, like at a movie theater or different public places. If they were to have teachers armed, then you would hope that they would have a very secretive, hidden place for it so that no one could find it, such as students.
ReplyDeleteGun control has taken a whole new approach since Sandy Hook; I don’t think that it is fair for the general public to have to endure such tragedy’s every other year, or even every year. The general public or anybody else shouldn’t need something like a 30 round magazine on an MP5K. That is military grade and we should dent even be selling that kind of stuff publically. Those kinds of firearms give an individual incredible firepower and that is too dangerous, judging by the multiple tragedies that have happened over the years. This is a pressing issue that somebody has to do anything about. Why would you need something like that? Honestly, you only need one bullet! Even if you do have a gun in your house then it is about 8 more times likely that it will be used on someone in the house than an intruder. The National Rifle Association knows that putting a rifle in every school in America would mean good business for all companies that sell firearms. Personally I don’t see why the stricter background checks haven’t become mandatory already. Bearing a firearm is big deal and having one is a big responsibility, and we can’t be sure with the current laws in place that that person is responsible enough to bear arms. If not, then, well, they can’t have guns because that would be a safety violation to the general public. The way to stop gun violence is to prevent these weapons from getting into the wrong hands.
ReplyDeleteThe comment above is by Sam
ReplyDeleteMargaret- My thoughts abought gun control is that if you have a bad record and you have a gun. Your gun should be taken away. I think that giving a teacher a gun a good idea to protect your school. But i think you wouldnt tell any one exept the principle because if another teacher was bad they would try to take the gun and and hurt other people. Also i think that the principle would also ahve one.
ReplyDeleteMadeline- What would Jesus do? What would Jesus think about gun control? In 2011 almost 32,000 people died from gun injuries. Almost 20,000 of those were suicides, and over 11,000 were murders. Do people use guns to protect themselves? What are they protecting themselves from? In 2011 many people killed themselves with the guns, and they also killed many other people. I don’t think he would like to see so much death for no reason. I think that guns should only be for the police or people that are serving our country. Anyone who really would like to own a gun should have to prove that they could be trusted with a gun. I do not believe that a teacher should have a firearm in his or her classroom. That just seems dangerous. I think that additional background checks are needed. A criminal should not be able to walk into a store, gun fair, or use the Internet to buy a gun.
ReplyDeleteHenry- I think that the gun control in the united states is very smart. in the way that they doing more intense background checks. I think that the background checks will work pretty good but not the best idea. And then the magazine size is not going to help at all, i think.
ReplyDeleteEmily- People should be able to have guns to protect themselves, but if they have no threat or harm to them, then they don't really have a reason to own a gun. Arming teachers with guns would be a good idea, but if a student finds out, it could be harmful to the student. Teachers have to be careful with the gun and put it somewhere so that a student won't accidentally find it. To prevent gun violence, we should make sure guns are going into the hands of someone who knows how to handle one. Giving it to the wrong person would be horrific. Buying guns the way you don't need a background check should be illegal, and make sure that a background check is done, no matter who is selling it and who is buying it.
ReplyDeleteGraci- People in the United States should be able to carry a gun if they're licensed and to protect themselves. But, they shouldn't carry a gun around with no purpose. Teachers should be armed incase of an attack or threat to the school. The students should not know that a teacher has a gun because the student could get scared. The teachers would need to hide the gun in a safe place where no students would see or find it. To prevent gun violence, every person who buys a gun needs to have a background check or a gun could fall into the wrong hands. If the person who sells the gun to him/she does not look at their background and he/she kills someone, the seller should also be in trouble with law.
ReplyDeleteAustin- I think that people should be able to have guns incase they get in a bad situatuion. But I think that people need to be more careful to who they sell them to because alot of crazy people have gotten ahold of them and killed people. I think that arming teachers would be a good idea but the teachers need to make sure that they are hidden from the students. To prevent gun viloence we need to make sure that the guns are going to the people that really need to use them for the right reasons but one thing that I dont know the answer to is figuring out if all people are going to use it for the right reasons because some people could commit there first crime and no one could be expecting it becasue it wasnt on there background check.
ReplyDeleteJack-Guns are made for killing. animals, people, and other things. they should be limited as much as posible. Listen to the parents of sandy hook. Would Ghandi approve of this. So many people have died. I belive some are from people playing very violent games.
ReplyDeletewelles- my thoughts are that if a teacher is licenced and trained and if the school wants it there should be guns. having it could help prevent something like Sandy Hook from happening. i believe tht some of the violence has to do with violent video games because it makes some people think it is ok.
ReplyDeleteCharlie- My thoughts on gun control are that we need to increase the detail and attention in our background checks. Also I really don't think that teachers really need guns. I think that we will not decide to arm teachers with a fire arm, but I think they will limit the guns given to the general public.
ReplyDeleteVictoria- I think that we need to be more aware of who is buying guns and do more backround checks than we are. I think that teachers should be trained for a gun because things like sandyhook have happened and you will never know if it will happen to us so i think we should be ready anyway.
ReplyDeleteIsaiah-Gun control is getting a little out of hand now. Yes I think additional background checks or any at all is a good step for private transactions, but how do we enforce it? No I do not think teachers should carry guns because the chances that anyone would try to get into St. Joes or even try to kill children is EXTREMELY low. Besides with our extreme security with the netted doors and locked front door and alarms, nothing bad can really happen. Even if a teacher were to have to gunfight a criminal the chances they would get the gun used against them may be high if they don't train right.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth- I think to show people that gun violence is out there we could make more public messages about it. I would feel safe if my teacher had a gun. The only thing is that a gun is a weapon so it would also scare me to have a gun in the class. I think people need to limit the amount of guns people buy. The people that sell guns should be authorized to do back round checks on people before they buy a gun.
ReplyDeleteRobert- I think that gun control in the United States is not very good because if a crazy guy like that guy from Connecticut got his hands on a gun it's safe to say that there are more people that are out there that are just as crazy as he was that could do some serious damage if they were to get a gun. I think that if we just made it harder for crazy people to get a gun by adding length to their back round check then their might be less massacres in the U.S. I do also think though that we shouldn't be getting our guns out of reach because we can't even stop a few terrorists.
ReplyDeleteEmile-I think that people are the U.S. are being way to over protective about guns and safety i personally think that a teacher or the principle or even the front desk worker have a gun because you never know what may happen. I think that the bar has been reset school might be one of the safest places but its now just as safe or dangerous as a baseball game a bank, homes, every thing is at a higher newer risk and we can't help what other people do think or already have but what we can do is make selling guns off the street is ilegal and put mettal detectors at all doors heck put video cameras every where but at the end of the day it will not make a HUGE different. So arme teachers and put metal detectors at doors and even if it dosent make a huge difference it might make a small one and i think that little change will make a difference.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie- I think that the united states made a good choice in trying to help the bad things that people can do with them.I think that my choice would be a modification of putting armed teachers in the schools. I think that the teachers should not have them but I think that the principle should have one not the teachers.
ReplyDeleteBen- my opinion is that guns should be able to be held but what we need is more security more cameras to watch if their is a held firearm
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