-2787657620Policy Brief

June 24, 2022

00Policy Brief

June 24, 2022

Reducing Gun Violence in America

Audience

The US state governments and bullet manufacturers.

Key messages

There are increased incidences of gun violence in the US, which puts people’s lives and families in danger. However, the state policy to curb them remains fairly stagnant. This policy brief presents means of reducing cases of gun violence.

Policy options

The US state government to restrict the gun purchases within a month to one gun per person.

Bullet manufacturers to put unique serial numbers on all bullets.

Executive Summary

School shootings, mass murders, and other gun-related crimes are becoming more prevalent in the US. Individuals are faced with the impending question of how they can protect themselves and their loved ones from these senseless crimes. This is because efforts by the US government have failed to prevent gun violence. Gun violence is more widespread in the Americas because of the ease with which weapons may be obtained and the lack of control or enforcement of firearms regulations. This policy brief presents ways of reducing cases of gun violence. Gun violence in the US may be reduced by the US state government restricting gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. This will help reduce the illegal gun trade. Also, gun violence can be reduced by bullet manufacturers putting unique serial numbers on all bullets, making it easy to identify the perpetrators of gun violence.

Context and Scope of the Problem

Gun violence and mass shootings in the US are on the rise, with more than 30,000 Americans being killed each year (Cornell & Cornell, 2018). The increased rates of gun violence have put people’s lives and families in danger, with Latino and Black populations being the most affected populations. As a result, gun violence has been considered a public health crisis in America (Maa & Darzi, 2018). For all Americans, firearm-related injuries are one of the leading causes of mortality (CDC, 2019). Although gun violence’s widespread, destructive, and inequitable effects have been recognized, the state policy to curb them remains fairly stagnant (Dorris & Murphy, 2021).

Policy Alternatives

Current Policy

In the United States, most gun regulations target the person who will be using the weapon, regulating who may own, buy, or possess a gun. Current Gun control policies also restrict carrying concealed guns and firearms outside the homestead. For instance, the Gun Control Act (1968), which controls the use of firearms at the federal level, mandates that US legal residents and citizens must be at least 18 years old to acquire rifles and ammunition or shotguns. People under the age of 21 are not allowed to purchase other firearms such as handguns. The Act permits the local or state officials to implement high age restrictions, but they cannot lower the federal minimum age. Patients in mental hospitals and fugitives are among those who are prohibited from purchasing weapons. Also forbidden from obtaining weapons are those who have previously served time in jail for felonies or misdemeanors that entail sentences of more than two years. Federal law also bans gun sales to those convicted of illegally having or using drugs such as Marijuana in the previous year. The benefit of the current policy is that the gun control laws may help in reducing gun possession by harmful people. Contrary, broad limits on gun access, such as the restrictions on the purchase or ownership of weapons for those with mental sickness, may not promote the FHIA concept of family diversity because they unjustly stigmatize individuals and families who fall into limited categories (Schroeder et al., 2018).

Proposed Options

One of the proposed options is that the US state governments restrict gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. The benefit of this policy is that it will minimize the number of unauthorized gun owners and reduce cases of gun violence. However, this policy option has a disadvantage since the policy will only prevent law-abiding citizens from purchasing guns.

The second policy option is that policymakers ensure that bullet manufacturers put unique serial numbers on all bullets. This policy option has the benefit of making it easier to trace perpetrators of gun violence. Once the criminals are identified, this will help minimize gun violence. However, criminals may delete the serial numbers, thus making it difficult to trace them even when bullets are found on the crime scene.

Policy Recommendations

The state governments in the US should ensure that they restrict gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. This is because most illegal gun trade is conducted by middle persons who purchase guns from licensed sellers in bulk and resell them to criminals and juveniles. Therefore, restricting the number of firearms one can purchase in a month will stop the illegal gun trade. Consequently, this will minimize the number of unauthorized gun owners and reduce cases of gun violence.

The state governments in the US should also ensure that bullet manufacturers put unique serial numbers on all bullets. Sellers should then be advised to keep the record of the buyers along with the serial numbers. Since bullets are often recovered at the scene of a crime, the records kept by the sellers will be used to trace the crime perpetrators once bullets are discovered. These criminals will be punished according to the law and will instill fear in other criminals, thus reducing cases of gun violence.

Limitations

The implementation of the proposed policy may be affected by the firearms sellers who do not abide by the law. This is because these sellers might sell more than one firearm to the same person in a month.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2019). Fast Facts: Firearm Violence Prevention. Retrieved 24 June 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.html.

Cornell, S., & Cornell, E. (2018). The Second Amendment and firearms regulation: A venerable tradition regulating liberty while securing public safety. American journal of public health, 108(7), 867-868

Dorris, L., & Murphy, A. L. (2021). No more politics over people: The role of helping professions in the prevention of mass shootings and gun-related violence. Traumatology. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/trm0000350Maa, J., & Darzi, A. (2018). Firearm injuries and violence prevention—the potential power of a surgeon general’s report. New England journal of medicine, 379(5), 408-410. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1803295Schroeder, A., Quinn, D., Allen, S., & Anderson, E. (2018). The intersection of mental illness and gun violence: Examining the evidence to guide sound public policy. NCFR Report: Family Focus, 78, F4-F6.