Week 8 Assignment

GUN LAW POLICY

Raheem Dow

Professor: Timothy Smith

Intro. Public Policy Analysis

11/13/2017

Executive Summary

Gun laws are significant in that they guide on how the guns should possess, the ammunition, the type of firearms to be used, the purchasing and selling of the guns among many other cautions in the policy. The major players in the system are including the executive group, the Legislative groups, the pro-gun Rights group, and the pro-gun control Groups who for the interest groups. The major players that this paper talks about are the pro-gun Rights group, and the pro-gun control Groups. These two teams seem to be rivals and have a different interpretation of the ownership, ammunition, and the usage of the guns. Politics play significant roles in the lobbying for the gun rights and control as the politicians have a different interest in this policy.

The interpretation by some of the groups in here vary and derive different senses to the policy. The pro-gun control Groups lobby strict gun usage for both the federal and the state uses, they also, fight for the implementation of the gun laws and fight against gun violence in the country. On the other side, the pro-gun Rights groups object the ban of assault guns, promote gun ownership as well as hunting and other sports shooting activities, and argue for gun rights and have belief in the legal conceal of carrying arms for safety and self-defense. In the end, these groups have different interrelationships and collaborative aspects with those that have similar interests as them to ensure that they lobby together and successfully.

Recommending the gun policy is a severe law that needs much caution when lobbying in affirmation. The two groups need to find the right solutions to create the correct answers to end crime and violence usage of guns. As experienced in the past several shootings, responsible use of firearms should be advocated for, and database registration of weapons carried out. Towards this end, the responsibility of the owners of guns needs to be known by every individual.

Introduction

Policies are essential in the day today’s operations of every individuals, groups, government and the global. A policy is a regular system of principles to give guidance and resolutions to accomplish rational aftermaths. The implementation of a plan is carried on and implemented through some protocols. The strategy helps in making both subjective and objective decisions. The policies are including, gun policies, women against abortion, divorce policies, job policies such as working 70 hours weekly, work-life plans, and many others. In this paper, the gun policy is the primary policy of analysis as it tries to analyze the system by stating who the players are, that is, both officials and non-officials, and interest groups. It also describes every individual player and explaining the particular players influence politically and the impacts, conflicts, and the interrelationships to the society.

Players in the Gun Policy.

Gun laws regulate selling, ownership, and firearm usage and the ammunition. In the United States of America, the gun policy laws in Washington D.C and the territories in the US vary considerably and do not depend on the existing rules guiding the federal firearms. These gun policies are broader in some regions or are more limiting in some states than the federal laws (Ball, 2013). The major players in the gun law policy are including, the executive branch, the legislative branch, interest groups such as pro-gun rights groups and the pro-gun control groups.

The executive group led by the president seek the change of an Amendment that could allow every citizen to bear firearms. Consequently, in 2013, the government had to make some laws that control the safe use of guns by the citizens. The executive group plays a role in amending statutes that fight gun violence (Blocher, 2014). Primarily, these policies implement that ban assault weapons, guns that use high ammunition, confirm and close loopholes in the background, elevate services in the mental health and make schools safe. These policies are being fought for by the government led by the president.

Legislative branch on the other side has its policies enacted through the guidance of the pro-gun Rights and the pro-gun Controls. These group has interest in both the parties and legislate laws that favor both the sides in the gun policies (Weinberger et al., 2015). On the other hand, interest groups participate in the debate about the gun policy by either being making or removing efforts that enact the legislation, these include the pro-Gun Rights groups and the pro-gun Control groups.

Pro-gun Rights Groups, include the National Rifle Association (NRA); National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF); and Students for Concealed Carry. Their primary obligations are to object the ban of assault guns, promote gun ownership as well as hunting and other sports shooting activities, and argue for gun rights and have belief in the legal conceal of carrying arms for safety and self-defense, respectively.

The Pro-Gun Control Groups include Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and the Anti-Gun Violence group. These groups lobby gun strict gun usage for both the federal and the state uses, they also, fight for the implementation of the gun laws, and they too fight against gun violence in the country respectively (Spitzer, 2015). The group here claims that the unrestricted gun use prevents the government from controlling the responsibility of fighting crimes and death rates.

The two players from the list players in gun law policy that are explained in this paper regarding political influence, motives, conflicts, interrelationships, and impacts on the system include Pro-gun control; Anti-Gun Violence group, and the pro-gun rights groups associated, as well as the National Rifle Association. The Anti-Gun Violence group fight to address the issues that are related to the gun violations. For example, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) has since 1974 advocated for the reduction in violence through education and legislation. It has been fighting these wars through the bill of various Acts that lobby against gun violence and gun-related crimes and deaths. The CSGV has in the past had a conflict with the NRA over the interpretation of Second Amendment Rights (Spitzer, 2015). It has collaborated with the President Obama’s government in the background check of the on the private sale of guns, supported the strict screening for mental health before making gun purchases among many other of its motives.

The coalition also has similar interpretations of gun control measure with other gun control groups such as Education Funds to Stop Gun violence (ED Fund). Politicians such as Former Democrat congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2014 campaigned against gun violence in the country and counteracted the NRA’s campaigns by raising $ 20 million. The group has impacts in that they have fought for the making of the handguns illegal and register all the United States gun owners in the federal database to ensure responsibility in the usage of guns (Barry et al., 2013). The policies that these groups protect are based on the concept that they are law-abiding gun owners, though these systems have failed severely in the past on implementation, the Anti-gun Violence groups have played smart to have reforms on the laws.

The pro-gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association is the most extensive group that lobbies for the protection of gun ownership and funds more than $206,890 to the national contenders, political parties and other organizations with interest in the policy. These groups propose such as a reference to protect schools from future shootings; the schools should have police forces installed in every institution. The NRA opposes the background check as opposed to the Anti-Gun Violence Groups, as they argue that the illegal possession of guns is present, as criminals can still obtain weapons through illegal means. They also oppose the laws that ban the assault guns as they claim that these rules have not had any impact on them to reduce the crime rate. The group teaches civilians on safety use of firearm and competency, law enforcement to youths and adults through several programs (Blocher, 2014). The NRA has several partners such as the Political Victory Fund, NRA Institute for Legal Actions, NRA Civil Rights Defense Funds, and many others.

Conclusion

The gun laws policy falls under control by the gun control and the gun rights activists or organizations. The agenda of this administration is the rights and usage of guns, firearms, and ammunition. These two rival groups define the laws and have different interpretations of these policy laws. Different individuals such as politicians have interests in this policy and they also determine what best suits these statutes through Acts that are amended in the congresses or the parliament. The group here lobby for the use of the guns in different ways as some of them support some acts of the gun ownership. These groups have significant impacts on the gun policies as both try to explain its aspect of the policy and what responsibilities the gun owners should have.

References

The Yale Law Journal: https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/firearm-localism

Examining the state of gun research: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/apr/26/special-report-examining-state-gun-research/

Gun Law History in the United States and Second Amendments Rights: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=4825&context=lcp

http://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2151828/firearm-related-injury-death-united-states-call-action-from-8