The 2nd Amendment Should not Be Hiding The Current Gun Problems Behind Its Curtains

Gun control is a very heated argument throughout the United States. The 2nd amendment says that we have the right to bear arms, but that was back in the 1700s and things have changed very much since then. Now many people use guns for murder and not what the constitution wanted them to be used for so courts and the government are starting to crack down on people's access to them. According to the Brady Campaign some states have better grades than others when it comes to safety. Tennessee does not have a very good grade being ranked with a D+ and getting a Sensible Safety Star for not allowing hidden handguns in bars.

Some laws that favor people against gun possession are the Juvenile Possession Law and the Juvenile Sale/ Transfer Law. These laws state that you must be 18 years old in order to purchase all firearms. Those two laws are its only positive marks with the rest of its grades poor. It does not have a Child Access Prevention Law, Gun Safety Locks and Safer Design Standards. What is really bad in Tennessee is that they do not do Secondary Sales Background Checks on people buying guns. This means almost anybody can walk into a store and buy a gun even if they have a history of violence. They also do not allow cities to regulate guns. A demerit was also given because Tennessee prohibits lawsuits against the gun industry.

Tennessee's gun control laws can be defined in one word: despicable. In no way are these laws strict in any way. For the two positive grades that Brady Campaign gave the state those should be guaranteed ones anyway. Nobody under 18 should be allowed to purchase a gun. Seriously even in Texas people under 18 can not buy guns. Why the state can't force gun manufacturers to put safety locks on weapons is just lack of concern for the public's well being. Background checks should be essential so guns aren't put in the wrong people's hand. The public is not safe living in a state where guns are just somebody else's problem. These laws are all ones that should be cracked down by the government to protect all the innocent people who could be affected by the lack of gun control. There are no restrictions on buying any sort of gun in the state. Handguns, rifles, shotguns, and assault weapons are all fair game to purchase in Tennessee. There are also no restrictions to how many guns you buy in one month so you could purchase tons and then sell them to whoever you want.

In the year 2002 there were 420 total homicides in Tennessee with 66.7% of them from guns. If you do the math that is approximately 280.14 people killed from guns in Tennessee in 2002. The population in 2003 was 5,841,784 million. So if the entire state happened to be murdered in 2003 than 3,896,469.928 would be killed by guns. That is not a very nice statistic to hear. Tennessee does not have any special facts when it comes to having the most or least gun violence. So just because Tennessee does not have the most gun violence in the country doesn't mean it doesn't have problems because it doesn't have the least amount of gun violence either.

No, there is a not a clear relationship between the state's crime statistics and its gun control laws. California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, and Massachusetts all received an A- by the Brady Campaign which was the highest a state received. The problem is 72.6% of the people murdered in California were by guns and Tennessee had 66.7% murdered by guns and had a D+ rating. Hawaii also had an A- and 43.5% killed by guns. So there really is no clear relationship on statistics and ratings. It really is about who has more crazy people in each state willing to kill someone else with a gun. Even though there is no clear relationship, every state should work on raising there grade with gun control. Maybe then if the states and government make it harder for bad people to have possession of guns than less people will be killed by them and each state will be a safer place. Maybe even with a little work Tennessee can raise its grade from a D+ to an A.