gun control

Attempts to legislate the right to own and bear arms. The difference in the situation between Britain and the USA with regard to gun laws is in marked contrast - Britain's gun laws have always been stringent, and were tightened further after the March 1996 Dunblane massacre, in which 16 children and their teacher were murdered; in the USA however, although gun laws are in force both at a federal and state level, the right to bear arms is considered a constitutional right, and pressure groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), who boast over 3 million members, wield considerable social and political power. It is estimated that half of all US households own at least one gun. In 1997 the National Center for Health Statistics and the Children's Defense Fund announced that the number of teenagers and children killed by guns in 1995 in the USA had fallen by 9.4% to 5,285, an average of 14 deaths a day. This was the first fall in this figure for a decade. Homicides by guns in the USA dropped by 9.2%, but still accounted for 60% of all deaths.

After the Dunblane killings in Britain, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the families and supporters of the Dunblane victims organized the Snowdrop Petition which called for a total ban on handguns, and the British government announced in October 1996 that 80% of all handguns were to be made illegal. The USA has also experienced recent gun-related tragedies, including the deaths of 14 students and 1 teacher at Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado in April 1999, and the death of 12 citizens by a trader in Atlanta, Georgia, in July of the same year. On 14 May 2000 (Mother's Day in the USA) hundred of thousands of mothers and their families held a ‘Million Mom March’ in Washington, DC, the largest gun-control rally ever, and demonstrated in 70 other US cities. Counter-demonstrations were also held by groups including the NRA and the Second Amendment Sisters, a Dallas-based group of women. The historical and political heritage of the USA means that resistance to changing the gun laws is much higher than in the UK.

Recent legislation in Britain The Gun Control Bill resulted from the recommendations of the Cullen report into Dunblane. The ban covered ownership of handguns over .22 calibre and all handguns unless kept securely at gun clubs. Other key points of the legislation included stringent new security standards for gun clubs, tougher powers to check on firearms holders and dealers, a new national computer for all firearms licences, and stricter rules on holding a licence. The new gun laws are among the strictest in the world and far tougher than those of other European countries. Under the new legislation, anyone caught in possession of the outlawed higher-calibre handguns can be imprisoned for up to ten years, with a similar penalty applying to people who keep the permitted small-calibre guns outside club premises.

History of gun control in the USA Anti-gun campaigners in the USA argue that lives would be saved and crime rates would be lowered if guns were less widely available, and point to the fact that the USA has the highest death rate by guns than any other industrialized nation, and by a large margin. The opponents of tighter laws often cite the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which reads ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’, and is a central part of the revolutionary history of the country that grew in importance as the West was settled. Citizens who own guns now cite self-defence, hunting, target-shooting, and collecting as their reasons.

Recent US gun legislation In 1994 the Brady Bill, named after former White House press secretary James Brady who was seriously hurt in the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, became effective. This law enforced a five-day waiting period for people buying handguns, and also extended federal control of firearm licenses. Other gun control strategies enforced in the USA include restricting people considered to be unfit from owning weapons, and allowing weapons deemed to be ‘high-risk’ to be acquired only by people working for the police or the military. In 1997 President Clinton announced that most US gun producers would fit child safety locks on handguns sold in the USA. In January 2000 President Clinton called for an extra $280 million/£175 million to pay for tighter enforcement of US gun laws.

Recent statistics At least 556 people in 44 US cities were killed by guns from 20 April to 1 September 1999, it was announced in September 1999. A survey of 68 cities, ranging in size from about 1 million to 27,500, found that 320 of the deaths came from criminal or violent acts and that seven were accidental. No gun-related deaths were reported by 24 cities. Harvard University research published in July 1999 found that about 190,000 college and university students owned guns not used for hunting. The USA has also seen a rise in gun violence in schools. Between 1996 and 2001 there have been 16 shootings at US schools, resulting in the deaths of 35 students and 17 teachers, and the wounding of 70 others.