April 17 was just an ordinary day until the Virginia Tech shooting. It was an incident that affected the lives of people in America. Thirty three people died because a kid got out of control with a gun. Not only did it affect the lives of people but it affected the right to bear arms.
John T. Casteen proves in this article that that the shooting at Virginia Tech made both gun-control and gun rights use this event to there to their advantage. This was one of the top agendas on the domestic political spectrum on the upcoming election. They were trying to make a law that would ban certain guns from being bought. The kid in the shooting didn’t use any of the guns that were banned in the law. The major gun-control groups know that the law of them trying to ban certain guns will not have much effect on gun violence which is why they haven’t looked into it further. The bill that they are trying to pass is considered a, “fund raising bill,” because it is designed to make Congress look good. They want to pass a law that makes people get a background check before they are allowed to purchase a gun. This would affect a lot of people from buying a weapon. They estimate that it would stop an estimated 40 percent from buying guns. They admit the law is still not perfect but it is a step into the right direction.
The article is right that something needs to be done with gun control. The new law that they are trying to pass with people having to get background checks is a good start. Right know with the law that is out, they are raising the price of guns and ammo. This is not going to stop a criminal from becoming violent with a weapon. This is only a way for the government to get more money. This is punishing people that use guns for sporting events even though they have no intention of getting violent. If a person steals from a store, everyone doesn’t get punished by raising the prices in the store so people don’t buy things in the store.
Having a background check on the people before they are allowed to buy a gun will stop criminals from trying to do something bad again. The article says that “we cannot know for certain who will or will not turn a gun to violent.” This is very true, but by having a law that prevents people that are likely to go violent with a gun is a good start. This is a matter that needs to be addressed as more than just a “fund raising” event. The matter needs to be taken more seriously and needs to look into the back ground check before buying a gun.