Each year in the United States, more than 35,000 people are killed by guns, a death rate much higher than in any other industrial nation. Attacks involving a gun are five times more likely to result in a death than similar attacks made with a knife. In 1992 guns were the weapon used in approximately two-thirds 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. (Encarta 99 p.1) However, with each horrific

, violent event, more questions rise concerning our Second Amendment.

During an interview that year on the McNeil-Lehrer Newshour, Burger referred to the Second Amendment as "the subject of the one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the work 'fraud,' on the American people by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime."

Helsley also said that once the public sees how costly, bureaucratic and ineffective the new gun control laws are, politicians who support them are going to pay a steep price. "This whole package," he said, "is absolute smoke and mirrors."

Lower courts cited Miller in 1983, when they ruled a Morton Grove, Ill., city ordinance banning possession of handguns did not violate the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court let that decision stand without comment, and since then has the declined to accept any appeals of the Second Amendment cases from the lower courts.

"In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a (sawed-off shotgun) at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument," the court said. However, some argue that in U.S. vs. Miller, the high court assumed the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms. What the Miller case did leave open to question, was that certain types of guns-such as sawed-off shotguns or assault rifles-might not be protected.

In the U.S. vs. Miller ruling, which sprang from the arrest of two men for transporting an unregistered, double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun across state lines, the Supreme Court said the "obvious purpose" of the Second Amendment was to "assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness" of the militia.

The NRA contends that even Davis senses the political risk of pushing the issue too much. Earlier this month, the governor urged lawmakers to slow down for a year and refrain from passing more gun control legislation. He said that he wants to give law enforcement agencies time to adjust to the many regulations just passed and the state a chance to assess how well they work. (Sanchez p.1)

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Approximate Word count = 1733
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)