Over the past few decades gun control has come to the fore front of debate in politics and the mass media. It's no wonder that in the wake of the recent school shootings and attacks on churches that people are beginning to fear guns. People are beginning to see guns as an object of death and destruction and not as what they are meant to be. While guns are used in war they are not intended to kill innocent people, guns are intended to be used by experienced gun handlers for protection and hunting. When used properly a gun is no more dangerous than a car or a knife, all of these can be used in crime but none of them are intended to be. Guns have been around for hundreds of years, so why is it that only recently people have been shooting up schools and churches. Proponents of gun control would have you believe that putting stricter laws on guns would nearly eliminate their illegal use this is simply not true. For example, in California there was recently a bill that allowed the District Attorney to make any gun he wanted illegal. Once made illegal a letter would be sent to all the people who were known to have that gun stating that they had a certain amount of time to turn in the gun or they would face felony weapons charges. While at first glance this may seem like a good idea the more you look at it the more you can see how poor this bill really is. The major flaw of this bill is that it puts the power solely in the hands of the DA; and all politicians can be influenced by public opinion. According to a Rolling Stone Article by PJ O’Rourke “Now Gore is in favor of gun control, but he voted for the NRA-backed 1986 Firearm Owners’ Protection Act and against both a fourteen-day waiting period for handgun purchases and a federal requirement that serial numbers be put on guns.” So what happened since 1986 that changed Al Gore’s opinion on gun control; the Rolling Stone Article hints that it was public opinion ...
