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Alexus Poston
Mrs. DeBock
English 4 Honors
3 March 2016
Gun Control in the United States
In the United States, any person that wants to purchase a gun must undergo a background
check that delves into their life to ascertain whether or not they are mentally fit to purchase a
firearm. Yet, people who are criminals, mentally ill, or otherwise unfit to own a gun still find a
relatively easy way around this background check system and obtain a firearm anyway. The
firearm background check system in the U.S. is deeply flawed with many loopholes. It is in
serious need of reformation that will ideally make it a stronger system overall and will help to
impede the staggering amount of gun violence present in the United States. Anyone may obtain
a gun in the United States, surpassing any background check or law he or she wants, because of
the weakness and ineffectiveness of our current background check system and gun control laws
which have allowed for unfit persons to own dangerous firearms for far too long.
According to Kristoff, More Americans have died from guns in the United States since
1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history. On average, guns kill more than
30,000 Americans each year and are used to commit over 400,000 crimes. In the United States
there are approximately 90 guns for every 100 people (Stronger Gun Control Laws Will Save
Lives). If guns really kept people safe, shouldnt the United States be one of the safest places on
earth and not have the highest rates of firearm violence among other high-income, industrialized
nations? Weak and ineffective gun laws are what sets the United States apart from other
industrialized nations who also allow their citizens to possess firearms. Studies have shown that

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other nations with stricter gun laws have far less overall gun violence than the United States. If
guns were a disease, the United States would have found a cure by now, but they are not and
therefore the problem continues to rage on.
Additionally, a large part of the problem with firearms in the United States is the
extremely flawed background check system that continues to inadvertently allow people who
should not have access to guns, obtain access to guns. Criminals, the mentally ill, and others who
know they would not pass a background check often use the many loopholes in the system that
are easy to work around. One specific, large loophole is the gun show loophole. The gun show
loophole makes it so that private sellers of firearms are not required to check ID or run
background checks on those who are purchasing their guns. Essentially, anyone can get any type
of gun they want for the right price, including assault weapons such as the kind used in the mass
shooting at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University which resulted in thirty-two
deaths and is known as the deadliest mass shooting in American History (Goddard). The shooting
at Virginia Tech was not the first case of a shooting that occurred, in part, because a person who
wanted to inflict harm on other people was able to obtain a gun through our flawed system. A
shooter in Tucson Arizona in 2011 procured a gun because his records, that would have shown
him not fit to purchase one, were not in the database and a second gun because of lax federal
regulations that frustrated the intent of the law. The Columbine shooters committed their act of
violence with guns bought at a gun show by an older friend of theirs with the help of the gun
show loophole (An Updated Background Check System Will Help Prevent Gun Violence) and
through another contact who sold the underage teens the semiautomatic handgun that was used in
the 1999 shootings. They were underage, had a history of criminal behavior and both had
undergone psychological treatment for their emotional problems (Doeden 32). Every red flag and

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warning sign was there and yet Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were still able to attain deadly
weapons. The firearm background check system is heinously broken and in need of serious
reform and repair.
Assault weapons are a threat to public safety and hold no rational reason for ownership
by the citizens of the United States. Assault weapons are used by the military to shoot multiple
targets very rapidly and are built with large-capacity ammunition magazines to reduce the
constant need for reloading. These guns are hardly put in use for hunting or self-defense, so
what is the purpose of them in America? As the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and
Explosives has explained: Assault weapons were designed for rapid-fire, close-quarter shooting
at human beings. That is why they were put together the way they were. You will not find these
guns in a duck blind or at the Olympics.They are mass produced mayhem (Assault Weapons
are a Threat to Public Safety). The list of massacres that have been committed with assault
weapons is a long one, in fact, they have been used to perpetrate some of the worst mass murders
in the history of the United States. Immense acts of violence executed with assault weapons are
only getting more and more common as time goes on. The Mcdonald's Shooting, the Stockton
schoolyard massacre, the CIA headquarters shooting; these are all examples of massacres carried
out with the use of assault weapons available for casual civilian use in Americas society
(Assault Weapons are a Threat to Public Safety). Additionally, assault weapons also pose a
large threat to law enforcement and limiting public access to these types of weapons would make
it less of a necessity for officers of the law to carry firearms that must match the firepower of
what certain specific violent civilians are carrying around.
On December fourteenth, 2012, a man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School with
multiple weapons in hand and shot and killed twenty-six people. twenty of those killed were

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young children who attended the elementary school (Lupica). It is now 2016 and still no progress
has been made on reforming the background check system or on banning assault weapons and
high-capacity magazines. According to polls conducted in 2013, 83% of all adults were in favor
of required background checks for gun show and private sales and 56% of all adults were in
favor of banning assault weapons all-together (Public Opinion on Gun Rights vs Gun Control,
2000-2015). Unfortunately congress has been gridlocked on this issue for as long as it has been
an issue. This is in large part due to the National Rifle Association's stake in politics and their
control over legislation. As long as nothing changes in the legislation, these tragedies will
continue to happen and more innocent people will continue to die at the hands of those who
should not have access to weapons that do not have a place in civilian society in the first place.
Anyone may obtain a gun in the United States, surpassing any law or background check
he or she wants, because of the weakness and ineffectiveness of our current background check
system and gun control laws which have allowed for unfit persons to own dangerous firearms for
far too long. Assault weapons have made it easier for those unfit to own a firearm in the first
place to wreak mayhem upon civilians and take the lives of innocent persons. Americas firearm
background check system needs reformation and assault weapons need to be banned or else this
vicious cycle will continue to repeat itself for as long as we let it. A tragedy/mass slaying of
civilians by a madman with a gun, a public outcry for refreshed and stricter gun laws, which is
then pushed to the back of peoples minds until it happens again. These laws and systems need to
be changed now before more lives are lost to gun violence in the United States.

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Works Cited
"Assault Weapons Are a Threat to Public Safety." Gun Control. Ed. Tami Roleff. Detroit:
Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Assault
Weapons Threaten Public Safety." Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.
Doeden, Matt. Gun Control: Preventing Violence or Crushing Constitutional Rights?
Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century, 2012. Print.
Goddard, Colin. "The Background Check System Is Ineffective in Preventing Gun Violence."
Guns and Crime. Ed. Christine Watkins. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt.
from "Testimony before the Crime Sub-Committee of the U.S. House Judiciary

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Committee,July 14 2010." Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2010. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.
Kristof, Nicholas. "Kristof: Lessons From the Virginia Shooting." The New York Times. The
New York Times, 26 Aug. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Lupica, Mike. "Shame on U.S.: How Many Tiny Coffins Do We Need Next Time?" New York
Daily News20 Mar. 2013. Rpt. in Gun Violence. Ed. Nol Merino. Farmington Hills, MI:
Greenhaven Press, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.
16 Feb. 2016.
"Public Opinion on Gun Rights vs Gun Control, 2000-2015." Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context.
Detroit: Gale, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
"Stronger Gun Control Laws Will Save Lives." Guns and Crime. Ed. Christine Watkins. Detroit:
Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Ten Myths About Gun Violence in
America."LCAV.org. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Feb.
2016.
"An Updated Background Check System Will Help Prevent Gun Violence." Guns and Crime.
Ed. Christine Watkins. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "A Plan to
Prevent Future Tragedies." MayorsAgainstIllegalGuns.org. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints
in Context. Web. 17 Feb.2016