Gun Laws and its effect on American Society

By Kyle Ross

10/23/21

America is one of few countries on Earth to allow its citizens to own firearms and, because of this, the country has run into many issues and controversies relating to it. Some believe it is an inalienable right, meaning, it cannot be infringed upon or changed. However, many look at this right liberally, believing that it must keep up with modern times and change as things have become more peaceful than they have in past ages. Many state governments have gone ahead and restricted gun ownership on the state level, in the hopes of curbing gun violence in their jurisdictions and hoping to get the ball rolling for the rest of the country.

One state of importance in the area of gun control would be California. Nationally, it is known as the state with the strictest gun laws, with some owning guns, but they’re highly regulated and hard to obtain. All the way back in the year 2000, the California department of Justice established new criteria for defining what an assault weapon is. This was all laid out in Senate Bill 23 Assault Weapon characteristics. On June 4^th 2021, U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez of the Southern District of California attempted to overturn a 1989 ban of assault weapons claiming it was an unconstitutional law to military-style rifles. The ruling was put at by the 9^th circuit and the overturn went nowhere. As of August 2^nd, 2021, there are at least 185,000 registered assault weapons in California. The question that many readers may be asking themselves is, how many firearms totally are related in homicides and deaths? The Educational Fund to stop Gun violence has reported many numbers all relating to deaths by gun or violent crimes related to guns. According to their most recent information, in total 2,945 people had died in 2019 by a firearm. 1,246 of these deaths were from homicide, while 1,586 were self-inflicted, from suicide. While many people across the nation hear or read about climbing gun death statistics, many may assume that this comes from homicides or even mass shootings. The reality of the issue is many people are taking their own lives with firearms.

If we look across the nation, we see the same statistics and story. New York is another state in the America that has strict gun laws and have passed laws prohibiting the purchases of certain firearms. A major example of these laws in New York would be the NY Safe Act, which put into effect restrictions on assault weapons, weapon modifications, and categories for firearms. In New York, it is unlawful to possess any assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device. Assault weapons were also redefined in NY to some semiautomatic weaponry under specific conditions. These laws were to combat violent crimes that involved firearms. However, after looking at gun related deaths in NY in total there were 800, 326 of them were homicides, 457 of them were suicides, and 23 were related to other causes. The bulk of gun related deaths came back to suicides.

California and New York are the two states in America with the heaviest and strictest gun laws. Over the years, many legislators and lawmakers have battled in Congress, Senate and in court to limit the Second Amendment for the greater good and to keep the nation safe. However, after looking at the numbers, the restrictions seemed to miss the larger issue which is a mental health problem. Across the nation, firearms have been used in 23,941 suicides and the numbers appear to be growing yearly. Restrictions on firearms have not yet been seen to end this mental health epidemic.