Policy in Place to Try to Reduce Gun Violence

Gun violence is a horrible action that effects Americans each year through; death, injuries, domestic violence. The number of Americans who die from guns is around 33,000 people from the FBI information, 73,500 are nonfatal firearm injuries, and about one million women today have been shot by their significant other with approximately 4.5 million women today have been threatened with a gun. This is a serious problem in America and there are policies in place to try to reduce gun violence.

One policy in place is the National Firearms Act of 1934. This policy was created to stop gun violence in America and to basically prevent access to NFA weapons to the public by creating a tax on; $200 for the making and transferring of NFA firearms, $500-1000 occupational tax on importation, manufacturing, and dealing of NFA firearms. The policy was enacted due to the frequency of gangsters who use these weapons, which were used in crime such as the St. Valentine Day Massacre. The policy which would mandate all weapons be registered of all NFA firearms which included; shotguns and rifles 18 inches or less, machine guns, mufflers, silencer, and other weapons, to the Secretary of Treasury. In the Gun Control Act of 1968 which amended the NFA which made all guns contain a serial number.

This policy was successful at reducing gun violence associated to NFA weapons. Even though the $200 tax on the making and transferring of the firearms have not been changed since 1934 which with inflation would be $3,500 allows for easer availability for NFA firearms. According to Ryan Cleckner has a statistic that shows the number of NFA firearms in America as of April 2017 is 5,203,489. Which this in mind according to Mother Jones database of all mass and spree killers dating back to 1982 of the 108 kills have reported that not one has been used with an NFA weapon. This is due to the registration of NFA firearm only allowed to consumers who go through a more intensive background check which includes; fingerprints, photograph, and a having to register the weapon fully and must receive a documented permission from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabaco, Firearms and Explosive.

The other policy in place is the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994. This policy mandates that students are not allowed to bring a firearm to school or would lead to expulsion for not less then a year. States will receive federal funding under the act if schools would implement the policy. States can still bring education to a student of expulsion due to the act the availability for education. Local education must report to the states to insure that local educational agency are in the compliance with the state law.

A Solution

This policy would eliminate federal funding restrictions for gun violence research. In 2013 president Obama allowed the CDC to conduct research on gun violence. But due to the NRA pushing Congress to pass the Dickey Amendment, which stops the CDC to use the funds on research that would promote gun control. This Amendment stopped all gun violence research for the CDC in fear of losing more federal funding. According to Jay Dickey who was the one the bill was named after said “It wasn’t necessary that all research stop, … It just couldn’t be the collection of data so that they can advocate gun control” (Dickey). Their predicted budget was $1.4 billion but they only receive $22 million. With research for gun control can start to understand the reasons of gun violence and help pass policies that would be beneficial to reduce gun violence. With no restrictions on what can be federally researched the CDC could have the opportunity to research topics like; the studying of what lawful and illegal gun ownerships look like, kids who have witness routine gun violence, safe gun storage. Understanding these topics would only help prevent gun violence or reduce suicides among kids and adults.

With the research done on gun violence would bring an enlightenment of understanding to very controversial topics. They could have studies done to see if what the NRA advocates for would really work like More gun equals Less violence. According to a statistic done by PEW research center states that 69% of Americans do not own a gun, but 36% of all Americans state they could see owning one in the future. If stronger research would be done to know weather owning a gun would reduce crime, then that might have them to go purchase a firearm. With having easy access to guns in the home creates a problem for children potentially having position of the firearm. A statistic done by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia states “More that 75 percent of first and second graders know where their parents keep their firearms and 36 percent admitted handling the weapon, contradicting their parents’ reports,” this is very bad to have easy access to guns and should promote a better safe gun storages to prevent children to have access to deadly weapons.