Gun Control Debate May 3, 2010

1. The Second Amendment means the right to have a militia, but not the right to personal handgun possession. More gun control needed.

2. Gun Control DebateMay 3, 2010 Team Members: Leonela Perez Cecilia Campana Jean Baptist Bello Sam

3. What is the Second Amendment? • The Second Amendment of the United States’ Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects a right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791. “ A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. ”

4. History • The requirement that certain English subjects keep and bear arms for military duty[dates back to at least the 12th century with King Henry II. There was no universal militia in England. • In America: • deterring undemocratic government; • repelling invasion; • suppressing insurrection; • facilitating a natural right of self-defense; • participating in law enforcement; • slave control in slave states.

5. What is a militia? • The Uniform Militia Act of 1792 obliged every free able-bodied white male citizen between the ages of 18 and 45 to be included in the national militia. It also required these men to provide their own arms and ammunition.[ • The concept of a universal militia originated in Roman times, where every citizen was a soldier and every soldier was a citizen.

6. Well regulated militia? • The term "well regulated" in the Second Amendment has been interpreted as a usage of the term "regulated" to mean "disciplined" or "trained".

7. What it the meaning of bear arms? The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the phrase To bear arms as "to serve as a soldier, do military service, fight."

8. Gun culture • The noted historian Richard Hofstadter popularized the phrase gun culture to describe America's long affection for the gun, embracing and celebrating the association of guns and America's heritage. Thus, the right to own a gun and defend oneself is considered by some, especially those in the West and South, as central to the American identity. • The importance of guns also derives from the role of hunting in American culture, which remains popular as a sport in the country today.[

9. What is the National Firearm Act? • The NFA is an Act of Congress passed in 1934 that, in general, imposes a statutory excise tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain firearms and mandates the registration of those NFA.

10. The Gun Control Act • The Gun Control Act of 1968, is a federal law in the United States that broadly regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners.

11. Individual Rights • Each gun owner must be able to verify a “Genuine Reason” for obtaining a gun, and self/defense must not be considered a genuine reason. • Liberty without regulation is impossible. • The right to be free from the threat of gun violence deserves as much respect as the right to bear arms. • Many Americans continue to believe that gun control will prevent gun violence, or at least reduce it.

12. Statistics • Every year, approximately 30,000 U.S. civilians are killed by guns. • The number of U.S. civilians killed annually by guns is ten times the number of people killed in the September 11, 2001. terrorist attacks.

13. What is behind? • NRA – National Rifle Association is an organization which lists as its goals the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection of hunting and self-defense in the United States.. • According to a 1999 Fortune survey, lawmakers and congressional staffers considered NRA the most influential lobbying group. • Members of Congress have ranked the NRA as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country several years in a row. • During the 2008 presidential campaign, the NRA spent $10 million. • Annual revenues for the NRA were around $150 million in 1994, up from $66 million in 1986. It spent $15 million on a new headquarters in the 1990s. • It went on to add that "[if the NRA members] believe in the right to take up arms to resist government policies they consider oppressive, even when these policies have been adopted by elected officials and subjected to review by an independent judiciary, then they are opposed to constitutional democracy."

14. Virginia Tech (was the most deadly in a long series of mass shootings in schools, workplaces, and other public settings in the United States.. killed 32 people and wounded many othersbefore committing suicide. The massacre is the deadliest peacetime shooting incident by a single gunman in United States history, on or off a school campus. Cho, an individual adjudicated as mentally unsound, to purchase handguns without detection by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). ….guns are too accessible, citing that Cho, a mentally unsound individual, was able to purchase two semi-automatic pistols despite state laws which should have prevented such purchase

15. Columbine (1999) killing 12 students and one teacher. We now know that the two young men responsible for the carnage [at Columbine High School] in Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999 had no difficulty obtaining the high-capacity assault weapons that were used in their rampage. ….They mentioned how they would like to leave a lasting impression on the world with this kind of violence.

16. Articles and video: • Gun Control Is Constitutional. • Written by Melissa Huelsman. • Amendment Does Not Protect Private Gun Ownership. • Written by RachanaBhowmik. • Virginia Tech Shooting Confession Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KElyLrrTLB0