The latest installment of the Washington Post series, “The Hidden Life of Guns” came out today, broadening the scope of research to the nationwide effects of gun sales in the deaths of police officers. Previous articles in the series explore gun sales in the Washington area, gun sale privacy laws and how quickly guns sold by dealers connect to crimes. The most shocking aspect of this series is that everything that takes place up until the actual crime committed with the gun is protected under the varying and loose state gun laws.
The Second Amendment states, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Gun laws differ from state to state, some taking the Second Amendment more literally than others. In D.C., it is legal to own a firearm as long as it is registered with the police, since the handgun ban was rendered unconstitutional in 2008. I think the laws in Washington, as well as other states, do not go far enough in regulating the area’s gun ownership and gun-related crime.
The Post’s series shows alarming statistics on how easily people who have committed past crimes can get their hands on a gun. Apart from stealing guns, there are “straw purchases”, in which the person with a criminal record has a girlfriend or relative purchase the gun for them or buys the gun with only a record of misdemeanors instead of felonies. If it were up to me, gun sales would be illegal no matter what, but since our Constitution states otherwise, I think the laws should tighten up considerably.
Gun control should be regulated under federal law, and should not be subject to the discretion of the state. In gun-related crimes, the basic human right to life is at stake, from the lives of police officers to innocent bystanders, and these violations should have uniform regulation and punishment by federal law. Lax gun-control laws in some states make it possible for people to buy guns and smuggle them into other, stricter states, making some of their regulatory laws difficult to enforce. Strict laws would be easier to enforce if they were the same nationwide and every state put them into action.
The series’ article, “How politics protects gun dealers”, discusses the Tiarht amendment and its effects on legal gun sales and crimes. Under this amendment, information tracing guns used in crimes to gun dealers is confidential, protecting the gun dealers from lawsuits and criticism. This amendment should be repealed, encouraging gun dealers to exercise more caution and discretion in selling firearms and limiting the instances of straw purchases. The amendment helps these businesses stay afloat and make some sort of a profit, but at what cost does this profit come?
Gun control is a difficult issue due to the varying values and opinions tied to it. Some people think it necessary to own a gun for self-protection or protection of loved ones as well as occupational requirements. I realize it is almost impossible to create federal gun regulations and stricter gun sale standards, but I strongly encourage anyone interested in the issue to read the series and consider the cost of our current gun control situation.
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