A recent spree of deadly school shootings like the Columbine massacre mentioned above has brought up debate on the issue of controlling guns. Many anti gun groups claim that banning handguns would substantially reduce violence because a majority of violent crimes are committed with handguns. Such a drastic step is not necessary, but something has to be done in order to reduce the violence. If strict laws dealing with background checks were widely enforced throughout the nation, then there would not be s

In November of 1993 Congress passed the Brady Bill. The bill was named for former White House press secretary James Brady, who was critically wounded by John Hinckley in a 1981 attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley bought two handguns in Texas using an expired drivers license and a fake address. The Brady Bill requires a background check to be done before the purchase of a handgun. With a background check, Hinckley would not have been allowed to purchase the guns that injured Brady. When guns are bought, "local police and sheriff's departments shall make a reasonable effort to conduct background checks on handgun buyers" (Kopel 55). Who is to determine what 'a reasonable effort' is? One thing that many people do not know is that the five day waiting period "was phased out in a provision that took effect on November 30, 1998" (www.handguncontrol.org/backgd.htm). In the five years that the five day waiting period was in effect, "more than 400,000 p!

Restoring the mandatory waiting period would be a good first step towards stopping more prohibited purchasers of guns. Other things can be done as well. Currently about fifty percent of all criminal history records are computerized and available for use by law enforcement. Other records are only kept at state levels, and mental health records are not computerized at all. Mentally unstable people are not allowed to purchase guns, but since mental health records are very difficult to check and often go completely unchecked, many mentally ill people still obtain guns. There is debate, though, involving the issue of making mental health records available for inspection. It is the patients civil right to have their hospital records kept confidential. The American Civil Liberties Union would greatly protest this. On the other had, a large amount of violent crime is committed by people with a history of mental illness. It would be very difficult to decide which side of the d!

Leone, Bruno. Gun Control. San Diego, California: Green Haven Press, 1997.

Kleck, Gary. Firearms and Violence. Cambridge: Ballinger, 1984.

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Many supporters of banning handguns say that reducing the availability of handguns will reduce deaths because criminals will turn to using knives, which "kill only about 2.4 percent of those they wound, whereas handguns kill 10 to 15 percent" (33). It cannot be concluded that criminals will automatically use knives if handguns are banned. Criminological studies show that anywhere from fifty-four to eighty percent of homicides in the united states occur in circumstances that would easily permit the use of a long gun (Kleck 189). People who are experienced with guns know that

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