Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams

Gun Control law is an effort to lessen violent behavior caused by use of firearms by regulating their possession and utilize . Gun control efforts usually focus on passing legislation by local , state , or national government to restrict legal ownership of certain firearms . Nearly all countries have some restrictions on firearms . The federal government and all U .S . states have some gun control laws . These laws are based on several strategies : forbidding certain types of people from obtaining any firearms prohibiting anyone other than the police , the military and persons

with special needs from acquiring certain types of guns and requiring purchasers to wait some period before purchasing a gun or gun license . Federal law and many state laws also prohibit minors from obtaining guns . Proponents of strict gun control laws argue that reducing the number of crimes committed with guns would save lives . Each year in the United States , more than 35 ,000 people are killed by guns , a death rate much higher than that in any other industrial nation . Attacks involving a gun are five times more likely to result in a death than are similar attacks made with a knife . In 1997 guns were the weapon used in approximately 70 percent of the murders in the United States . However gun control laws are controversial . While gun control laws may decrease criminals ' access to guns , the same laws restrict law-abiding citizens About half of all U .S . families own at least one gun . The most frequent motives for gun ownership are protecting the home , hunting or target shooting , and collecting . Gun control laws aim to reduce the criminal use of guns as much as possible while not putting large burdens on legitimate gun users (John Lott Jr (2003

According to more than a few current U .S . Supreme Court decisions that have annoyed conservatives , foreign court decisions are supposed to have a bearing on U .S . jurisprudence . During a U .S . Supreme Court statutory ruling , five justices on that valued court have held the law of the land permits gun ownership by convicted criminal provided the convictions were in foreign courts . In Small v . United States , the concern was that Gary Small had been in a Japanese penitentiary for 3 years for unlawful arms trafficking . He got out , and afterward bought a gun in the United States . Question : Could he be punished under 18 U . S . C . 922 (g (1 which makes it "illegal for any person , who has been convicted in any court , of a crime liable to be punished by incarceration for a term exceeding one year to possess any firearm ? The Court 's liberals said "no " for the reason that "any court " didn 't mean foreign courts Justice Thomas , joined by Justices Scalia and Kennedy , disagreed

Opponents of gun control laws , together with organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA , point to the cause of inconvenience to these laws may root to law-abiding gun buyers or owners . Another objection to gun control laws...