The right to bear arms 131But not all gun tragedies lead to more gun control. In 2016 and 2017, there were 729
mass shootings, defined as incidents in which at least four people were killed or injured,
not counting the shooter.^107 By the FBI’s definition of an “active shooter” there were
220 incidents from 2000 to 2016, including those in Orlando, Florida; San Bernardino,
California; Charleston, South Carolina; and Roseburg, Oregon.^108 In the deadliest mass
shooting by a single gunman, 58 people were killed and 546 injured in October 2017
at a country music festival in Las Vegas. While 45 states have passed new gun safety
laws since 2013 including “smart gun” laws, laws concerning mental health and gun
ownership, laws restricting ownership of assault weapons, and stronger background
checks, 30 states now make it relatively easy to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon
and 12 more states do not require a permit. Many states have also expanded the places in
which guns may be carried, including college campuses, and have passed “stand your
ground” laws, which allow gun owners to shoot first if they feel threatened.^109
In 2008, a landmark Supreme Court ruling recognized for the first time an
individual right to bear arms for self-defense and hunting.^110 The decision struck
down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns, while noting that state and local
governments could enforce ownership restrictions, such as preventing felons or the
mentally impaired from buying guns. The Court did not apply the Second Amendment
to the states in this decision, but it did so two years later in striking down a gun
control ordinance in Chicago and reaffirming the ownership restrictions noted in
the Washington, D.C., case.^111 The dissenters in both strongly divided 5–4 decisions
lamented the Court’s activism in reopening a legal question considered settled for 70
years (in 32 instances since a 1939 Court ruling, appeals courts had affirmed the focus
on a collective right—in the context of a militia—rather than an individual right to bear
arms, and recognized an individual right only twice between 1939 and 2007).^112
Given the strong public support for gun ownership—there are about 300 million
privately owned guns in the United States—and the Supreme Court’s endorsement of an
individual right to bear arms, stronger gun control at the national level is highly unlikely
(especially given the unsuccessful pushes after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in 2012 and in Orlando, Florida, in 2016 and Las Vegas in 2017; however, the
president and Congress have taken some limited steps in recent years). Early in 2016,
President Obama issued an executive order requiring most gun sales to be through
federally licensed dealers who would conduct background checks. The order also required
the Social Security Administration to release information about mentally ill recipients
of Social Security benefits, which would be considered as part of the background checks.
This provision essentially prohibited people with mental illnesses from buying guns.^113
The second part of the order was overturned by Congress early in 2017. After a mass
shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school that killed 17 students in 2018, high school
students organized the March for Our Lives, which had 1.2 to 2 million participants in
more than 800 cities around the world. In Florida, gun control laws were strengthened
by raising the age to buy a gun to 18, banning bump stocks that allow bullets to be fired
more rapidly, and introducing a three-day waiting period before buying a long rifle.
Congress passed legislation strengthening the National Instant Criminal Background
Check System and providing $1 billion to fund initiatives intended to enhance school
safety, such as the addition of metal detectors. President Trump also signed an executive
order banning bump stocks. In addition to this limited legislative and executive action,
extensive litigation will be necessary to define the acceptable boundaries of gun control
and to identify which state and local restrictions will be allowed to stand. Up to this point,
the verdicts have been mixed, with some lower courts upholding limitations on gun
ownership (such as laws prohibiting felons from owning guns) and other lower courts
striking them down. However, 93 percent of challenges to gun control laws have failed and
almost all challenges to gun laws in criminal cases have been unsuccessful.^1143 7, 6 1 3
people were killed by guns in the
United States in 2017. About 58.5
percent of these deaths were from
suicides.
Source: http://www.gunviolencearchive.orgDID YOU KNOW?
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