Essay About Violence Policy Center And Twentieth Century

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The twentieth century was a time of many political assassinations and
violent shootings. A nation in shock mourned the deaths of President
John Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. At the end
of the twentieth century the nation endured rising rates of violent
crime, with young people frequently involved as victims and
perpetrators and often armed with guns. Between July 1992, and June 30,
1999, there were 358 school-associated violent deaths in the United
States, including 255 deaths of school- aged children, or about 51 such
violent deaths each year. (Schmitt Rot, 2003)
Time after time, public opinion polls have shown that crime and
violence are among the most important concerns troubling Americans, if
not the most important. But do these concerns translate to changes in
public support for federal gun control measures? I will focus on public
attitudes toward gun control over both the short and longer terms.
Some Americans are convinced that more federal regulation of firearms
is necessary to reduce the number of murders that are committed with
guns and to ensure a safer, more civilized society. Others who support
private ownership of guns insist that the right to bear arms is
guaranteed by long standing custom and by the Second Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution and
that no cyclical increase in crime, no mass killing, nor any political
murders should
lead the nation to violate the Constitution and the individual rights
it guarantees.
What?s more, they say, knives and other instruments are used to kill
people, and
there is no talk of regulating or banning them.
The National Rifle Association generally believes that if more
ordinary, law-abiding citizens carried weapons, criminals would not
have a safe place to commit mass murders and other violent crimes.
Both supporters and opponents of gun control agree that some means
should be
found to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Not surprisingly, the
two sides
approach the issue differently. The two different strategies for gun
control
involve ?Deterrence?; Discouraging by instilling fear and
?Interdiction?
(Legally forbidding the use of) Advocates of deterrence, most notably
Second Amendment Foundation and the NRA, recommend consistent
enforcement
of current laws and instituting tougher penalties to discourage
individuals from
using firearms in crimes. They maintain that interdiction will not have
any effect
on crime but will strip the constitutional rights and privileges of
law-abiding Americans
by taking away their right to own guns.
On the other hands, advocates of interdiction, led by such
organizations as Handgun Control, Inc, the Center to Prevent Handgun
Violence, and the Violence Policy Center, believe that controlling
citizens? Access to firearms will reduce crime. Therefore, they favor
restrictions on public gun ownership.
A ten year overview of the publics attitudes about the issues
government ought to be addressing is presented by the U.S. Department
of Justice in its annual publication called Sourcebook of Criminal
Justice Statistics 2002.In 1993 fewer that 0.5 percent of adults polled
mentioned gun control spontaneously. In each year thereafter between 1
and 2 percent of the respondents mentioned gun control as an important
issue. (Web)
Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of the Harris Poll, provides some insight
into the meaning of the gun control numbers in an online essay dated
May 17, 2000 .The essay accompanied the release of Harris Poll in which
the question was asked: Education (19 percent) and health care (16
percent) continue
to come top of the list of issues mentioned spontaneously when people
were asked
to say which two issues are most important to address. The most
interesting trend is
that gun control was mentioned by 9 percent, Between 1996 and the first
half of 1999,
only one or two percents mentioned it as an issue. It now ranks sixth,
behind education,
health care, crime, Social Security and taxes. (Web2)
Pollsters from several organizations have