Coleman ,Madia. “Fact Sheet: Weak Gun Laws Are Driving Increases in Violent Crime.” Center for American Progress, 3 Nov. 2022, 

This article discusses the ratio of gun laws to violent crimes using guns. It shows a great relationship between states with strict gun laws and states without gun control. However, it states that states with close to no gun control laws show more freedom. They have significantly more mass shootings, gun-related homicides, and other gun-related crimes. It also shows that most of the people that commit those shootings are usually teenagers, so states with gun laws to raise the age of buying weapons to 21 or higher have less gun violence in general, so the author of this article recommends that all states should consider having at least some gun control laws to limit those crimes, mass shooting and ensure the safety of the American citizens after all is it worth it to have the freedom to own guns but, lose people every day to unnecessary gun violence. This article is really important for my final paper because it shows statistics of different states and their gun laws and how states with stricter gun control laws have better safety grades and less gun violence or shootings in general, overall this will strongly support my argument for strict gun laws are essential for our safety because it shows factual statistics.

• States that received an “F” grade based on the strength of their gun laws—according to the latest scorecard from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence—saw the highest homicide rates. (Colemaan)
• States that received an “F” grade from the Giffords Law Center²⁵ based on the strength of their gun laws saw higher rates of police officers fatally shot from 2017 to 2021. (Coleman)

Goode, Erica. “Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce Laws on Gun Control.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Dec. 2013, 

            This article talks about sheriffs from around the country refusing to enforce gun control laws because they think they are not fair, and they would be doing more harm than good by not allowing law-abiding citizens to carry high-capacity magazines, and they say it’s a violation of the second amendment, and it is no right to strip citizens away from their assault weapons if they are no harm, although they agree to conduct background checks to private arms sales, most of them will not enforce strict gun control laws on citizens because it would simply be violating our second amendment rights and taking away our freedom for no good reason. This article supports my counterargument of why strict gun control laws would be violating American freedom and the Constitution as we know it, it shows sheriffs not enforcing the new strict gun control laws because it’s simply restricting the freedom of the citizens who have a right to bear arms while still letting criminals have guns because they break gun laws all the times, so this will play a huge role in supporting the argument of why gun control laws are not a good idea.

• Some sheriffs, like Sheriff Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. (Goode)
• In my oath it says I’ll uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Colorado,” he said, as he posed for campaign photos in his office — he is running for the State Senate in 2014. “It doesn’t say I have to uphold every law passed by the Legislature.” (Goode)

Tatman, Lianna. Chapter4, “The Gun Control Debate: From Classrooms to Congress”.Greenhaven Publishing LLC, 2019.

            This chapter talks about how the benefits of citizens in America having guns outweigh the benefits of gun control. The first reason he states is that the second amendment was created in the first place, which is to prevent government corruption and the United States from becoming a police state. If the government knows the country’s citizens are armed, they are less likely to oppress. The author states the second reason is for self-defense, especially for people without the physical physique to take on an intruder. Guns make it way easier to defend yourself. The author also states that gun control just won’t work because criminals can always get guns illegally. If good law-abiding citizens have to wait extended periods of time for enhanced background checks or can’t buy assault weapons, that’s just going to slow them down from stopping crimes. Criminals will always find a way to get guns illegally. He also states the Australian assault weapon ban, which, yes, it reduced gun violence. Still, it also increased other types of crime like kidnapping and robbery because if a person is not armed to defend themselves, then they wouldn’t be able to protect themselves or others that need help. He also states that the average police response time could be up to 18 minutes which is enough for someone to commit a crime and get away with it, so by making strict gun control laws, we are hurting responsible gun owners who want to defend themselves and others. This chapter plays an important role in my paper because it supports my counterargument of why our gun laws in America are good right now because it shows the benefits of citizens carrying guns to defend themselves and others against criminals, this will strongly support the argument of Americans freely carrying legal guns.

·      they frequently note that criminals do not have a problem breaking the law, including laws about who can have guns. They believe gun control laws would only reduce the ability of innocent victims to fight back against people who have obtained guns illegally.(Tatman 65)

·      If policymakers are truly in- terested in harm reduction, they should pause to consider how many crimes—murders, rapes, assaults, robberies— are thwarted each year by ordinary persons with guns.(Tatman 67)

·      Australia banned certain types of guns after a mass shooting in 1996 and instituted stricter regulations on the types that were still legal. While the country’s rates of gun violence and overall murder have fallen dramatically since then, its rates of other violent crimes, such as kidnapping and robbery, have not. (Tatman 69)

The Associated Press “Buffalo Shooting Suspect Had Exam for Mental Health in ’21, Police Say.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 May 2022, 

            In this video, commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia talks about the suspect involved in the Buffalo shooting, which killed ten people. He states that the attack was racist and is considered a hate crime and will be prosecuted as a hate crime. He also states that the suspect was brought in a year before the shooting for a mental health evaluation after threatening a high school. Still, he states that the threat was not racist, but the Buffalo police department did an investigation and decided that everything was ok. Still, the biggest problem was him a year later, buying a gun legally even though he wasn’t mentally stable. This shows how the background checks we do for purchasing a gun are not enough because the police department reported that he went under mental evaluation after threatening a high school. Somehow legally, he bought a gun. This shows we are really in need of stricter gun laws. This video plays an important role in my paper because it shows proof and support that the shooter in the Buffalo shooting had a previous history of threats toward a school and was brought in for a mental health evaluation and was still legally allowed to buy a gun. This will strongly support my argument for the need for stronger background checks

“The suspect was taken in for a mental health evaluation and was released a day and a half later”.(Gramaglia 0:40)

“June of last year he makes a threat to a high school and then he was brought in by state police for a mental health evaluation, he was later released as it was a generalized threat and not a racist or specific threat”.(Gramaglia 1:00)

Ferré-sadurní, Luis, and Grace Ashford. “New York Tightens Its Strict Gun Laws in Democratic Show of Force.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 June 2022, 

This article talks about the states of New York taking the necessary steps in gun control after the mass shooting in Buffalo that left ten people dead. The guy that committed the mass shooting was an 18-year-old who had a semi-automatic rifle and was wearing body armor. This protected him with his body armor and gave him incredible power with his rifle. The article also states that he purchased the gun legally, even though there were a lot of red flags on his computer which hinted at the mass shooting, so the response to the shooting, New York state has passed several gun control laws, including raising the age for purchasing a rifle to 21, banning the sale of body armors to civilians and introducing a red flag law, New York also passed a law that micro stamps bullets to trace who fired them, Overall this is a great move in the right direction for gun control laws. Still, I wish these laws were passed earlier. This is a really important article showing proof of gun violence and mass shootings happening even when the gun is bought legally and that’s because our background checks and gun control are not strong enough, this would play a huge role in supporting my argument of the need for more thorough background checks.

• The State Legislature passed a broad package of gun bills that will raise the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic rifle to 21, ban most civilians from purchasing bullet-resistant body vests and revise the state’s so-called red flag laws (Ferré-sadurní and Ashford)
• New York will now become the second state, following California, to pass legislation paving the way for the “microstamping” of shell cases with a unique alphanumeric code in order to trace the bullet back to the gun it was fired from. (Ferré-sadurní and Ashford)

Webster, Daniel W., et al. chapter 19,  “Updated Evidence and Policy Developments on Reducing Gun Violence in America”, Edited by Jon S. Vernick and Daniel W. Webster, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018, pages (36-39)

This chapter discusses a survey that found most Americans, including gun owners, supported strict gun laws after the Sandy Hook shooting. These gun laws included more detailed background checks and limiting who guns get sold to, like people with mental illnesses. Still, even after all the support from the public, those policies never became real because the pro-gun NRA was extremely well funded by people who supported it, so members of Congress were getting funded based on their support to strict or lose gun laws if they supported loose gun laws they would get funded more so the law never passed because it didn’t get enough votes, even though most Americans supported strict gun laws so we can make America safer. This chapter would greatly support my paper because it shows the reasoning behind why a lot of states are not passing strict gun control laws even though most Americans want them to, it also shows the business side of guns and how strict gun control laws would negatively affect the money made from selling and maintaining guns.

• We found that large majorities of Americans—including gun owners and Republicans—supported a wide range of gun policies, including policies to enhance the background check system for gun sales, to prohibit certain dangerous persons (e.g., those convicted of a serious juvenile crime) from having guns, to institute greater oversight of gun dealers, and to prevent people with mental illness from having guns. ( Webster 36)
• in the gun policy arena, interest groups in favor of strengthening gun laws—like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence—have historically been out- funded by the pro-gun NRA, which receives significant funding from gun manufacturers and is commonly acknowledged as one of the most powerful (Webster 37)
• the NRA spent more than $24 million on political contributions, lobbying, advertising, and other communication activities intended to influence policy outcomes.4 The NRA exerts direct political power over members of Congress by grading them based on their gun policy votes and by funding their (or their opponents’) campaigns (Webster 38)

Biden Joe. “How Much More Carnage Are We Willing To Accept? This Isn’t about Taking Away Anyone’s Rights. It’s about Protecting Our Freedoms to Go to School, to a Grocery Store, and to a Church without Being Shot and Killed.” Vital Speeches of the Day, vol. 88, no. 9, Sept. 2022, pp. 207–10. EBSCOhost, 

This Journal speaks about the possible steps we can take to help with mass shootings and how we can slow down their occurrence of them or completely eliminate mass shootings in the United States. President Biden first starts by stating how a public school in Uvalde, Texas, looks like a battlefield with a lot of innocent students and teachers killed because of someone who decided to buy an assault rifle and go shoot students and teachers in a school, Biden then goes on to explain how if we give kids mental help and have more school counseling some of the students wouldn’t decide to commit any mass shootings at all, but then Biden states the most important part which is what we should do with our gun Laws He states that automatic guns were banned in the past, and we are still a free country. It didn’t affect us in a bad way at all, so he states that the best thing we can do is banned the sales of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines because we don’t need high-capacity magazines, and if anything, most people that use high-capacity magazines use them for mass shootings, another suggestion he made was to raise the age for buying a gun from 18 to 21 because people become more mature at 21 and another solution was to remove immunity from gun sellers and manufacturers because that would make them be extra careful of who they are selling to since they will be held liable for it, Overall president Biden makes some great points, and these will definitely help slow down mass shooting in the United States. This journal plays a huge role regarding my topic because it connects the sales of semi-automatic assault rifles to the rate of gun violence and mass shooting which support making strict gun control laws.

• Nine categories of semi- automatic weapons were included in that ban, like AK-47s and AR-15s. And in the 10 years it was law, mass shootings went down. But after Republicans let the law expire in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to
  be sold again, mass shootings tripled. Those are the facts. (Biden)
• According to new data just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America. The number one killer. More than car accidents. More than cancer. (Biden)