GUN CONTROL AND ITS HISTORY IN USA

                                GUN CONTROL AND ITS HISTORY IN USA 

INTRODUCTION 

Last year, two mass shootings occurred in the United States: one in Atlanta, where eight people were killed, including six Asian women, and another in Boulder, Colorado, where ten people were killed inside a grocery store by a shooter.

The two incidents reignited debate over gun restrictions in the United States, which has among of the world's most lax firearms laws. The United States has the world's highest rate of civilian gun ownership. According to the RAND Corporation's Gun Policy in America Initiative, around one out of every 10 Americans owns a firearm. According to a 2016 study, this could be one of the causes behind the country's six-fold higher homicide rates than other countries.

HISTORY OF GUN LAWS IN USA

According to law only a few persons, such as those with a criminal record or mental illness, may find it difficult to acquire a gun in the United States, as it is written in the country's Constitution. Despite the fact that gun ownership is a constitutional right in the United States, restrictions governing who can buy a gun vary by state.

In the United States, gun regulation is based on the country's Constitution's Second Amendment. According to Library of Congress records, the Supreme Court delivered a judgement interpreting the Second Amendment for the first time since 1939 in June 2008.The court concluded at the time that the amendment granted citizens of the United States the freedom to possess a firearm for historically authorised purposes such as self-defense. After President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated in 1968, Congress approved the Gun Control Act (GCA). Following these legislation, a slew of other measures were enacted. For example, in 1986, Congress relaxed some of the GCA's restrictions, making it easier for illicit gun dealers to operate. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, made it easier for people who trade in firearms to conduct background checks on their customers, ensuring that felons and other prohibited people couldn't buy them.

Despite this, there is currently no one statute or provision in the Constitution that governs gun regulation. In fact, there is little agreement among experts on which types of gun restrictions and policies can effectively reduce violence.

CONCERN OVER GUN CONTROL

As per data compiled by the Pew Research Centre, about 30 per cent of American adults said they personally own a gun and an additional 11 per cent said that they live with someone who owns a gun..Further, as per this survey, about two-thirds of the gun owners said that one of the major reasons for owning a firearm was protection, followed by hunting (38 per cent), sport shooting (30 per cent), gun collecting (13 per cent) or their job (8 per cent).

STANCE OF US GOVERNMENT 

Following the past incidents, Biden had called for the Congress to work on a much stricter and efficient gun control measures. There had been a divide in how Republicans and Democrats see gun laws. While the Republicans had typically resisted making gun control stricter, Democrats had supported it.