2nd Peer response

2nd Peer response

Please respond in 1 paragraph to the following:

The solution to this complicated problem with the United States lack of regulation regarding guns and ammunition. There is little to no regulations on ammunition sales and there appears to be regulation in place to oversee the gun industry. There are some guidelines that a person must follow, when purchasing firearms, but there are many loopholes. There are currently no restrictions on buying guns and ammunition in a private sale and there would be no papers to fill out or no regulator agency to report the sale to. In some states this isn’t the case but in most jurisdictions, this is the case. There are currently no federal laws addressing the sale of guns and ammunition in a private transaction. In many states, guns sales laws are only pertinent to gun dealers with licenses to sale firearms.

According to CNN Wire, Thom Patterson on July 21 2012, Police took suspect James Holmes, 24, into custody Friday after they say he set off two devices and sprayed the theater with bullets from an AR-15, a 12 gauge shotgun and at least one of two .40-caliber handguns police have recovered. Police Chief Dan Oates said friday night that Holmes had purchased four guns at “local metro gun shops,” and bought over 6000 rounds of ammunition through online transactions.

This incident shows how easy it is to get ammunition and high capacity of ammunition magazines in the United States. What if there was a mandatory requirement to report all transactions that exceeds 500 rounds? There is no guarantee that it would have prevented the shooting, but it may have given the police time to investigate the shooter. What rights are being violated in a case like this? There are no logical reasons for a civilian to require this much fire power. This is not a Second Amendment issue. The lack of concrete regulations, related to ammunition and high capacity ammunition magazines, are a great contributor to these kinds of incidents.

If guns, ammunition, and ammunition magazines were regulated or monitored better; there would be a decrease in overall gun violence. The availability of guns and ammunition are at the core of my position to reduce gun violence. If there is no way to track the people who buy guns; there will be no way to know when criminals, mentally ill or unstable people have guns. The loopholes in buying guns and ammunition must be addressed. There should be one universal standard to buy guns and ammunition in the United States. The United States Congress and the President must present and pass laws that make the country safer, while protecting the rights of gun owners. The recent mass shootings has brought gun control and gun debate to our attention. Gun violence was a great problem before the mass shootings and will continue to be after the next mass shootings. In many urban areas, African Americans and Hispanics are victims of gun violence all the time. It doesn’t get the coverage by the media nor does America stop for a moment of silence. Until gun violence is viewed as a national problem, the solutions to the problem can’t and won’t be found.