Gun Control, Violence and Safety Flashcards

Question

What does the National Firearms Act do?

Answer 1

In 1986, this Act amended the NFA definition of “silencer” by adding combinations of parts for silencers and any part intended for use in the assembly or fabrication of a silencer. The Act also amended the GCA to prohibit the transfer or possession of machine guns. An Act to provide for the taxation of manufacturers, importers, and dealers in certain firearms and machine guns, to tax the sale or other disposal of such weapons, and to restrict importation and regulate interstate transportation thereof.

Answer 2

On 1993, Led by Jim and Sarah Brady, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, or the Brady Bill, established America's federal background check system for gun sales.

Answer 3

The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, popularly known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

Answer 4

As a result of lawsuits, leadership scandals, a failed bankruptcy filing, and declining membership, the organization would eventually lose steam in the late 2010s. Their political donations have proportionately dwindled, although they still managed to spend over 29 million dollars in the 2020 federal elections. With the NRA dying a slow death, it's worth asking, what does that mean for gun culture?

Answer 5

This welcome but tepid measure enhances background checks for purchasers under 21 years of age and incentivizes states’ implementation of protection (“red flag”) laws that allow families and law enforcement to petition courts to remove guns from people at risk of harming themselves and others. It also expands financial support for community mental health care. That same day, in seeming contradiction of the passage of the first federal gun safety law in almost three decades, the Supreme Court took a far more consequential action. It declared a broad right to carry arms in public. Six conservative justices denied New York State the government’s most basic right to safeguard public safety and ensure domestic tranquility.

Answer 6

On May 24, 2022, a mass shooting occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, while seventeen others survived despite being injured

Answer 7

On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were Black, were murdered and three were injured.

Answer 8

That same day, in seeming contradiction of the passage of the first federal gun safety law in almost three decades, the Supreme Court took a far more consequential action. It declared a broad right to carry arms in public. Six conservative justices denied New York State the government’s most basic right to safeguard public safety and ensure domestic tranquility. The Supreme Court’s ruling seemed particularly insensitive after 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., and 10 supermarket shoppers were slain in a racist attack in Buffalo, N.Y. Then, at an Independence Day parade, seven people were killed and more than 30 wounded in Highland Park, Ill. This all happened in less than six weeks.

Answer 9

In Bruen, the Court struck down a 111-year-old New York law requiring “proper cause,” or demonstration of a special need for self-defense to carry a concealed weapon in public. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a 6–3 majority, held that New York’s concealed carry law includes a “proper-cause” requirement that violates the Second Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense. Thomas rejected lower courts’ decisions, which balanced gun rights with public safety, saying the only thing that mattered was whether laws are “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Answer 10

The ruling raises the immediate question of whether modern firearms regulations should really be judged by normative standards existing in 1791, when the Second Amendment was adopted. And do justices trained in law even have the expertise to conduct historical analyses? In one way, the justices aren’t really using history as a guide at all. Rapid-fire “assault-style” rifles, high-velocity armor-piercing ammunition—so-called cop killer bullets—and high-capacity magazines couldn’t even have been imagined by the Founding Fathers.

Answer 11

There was a slew of firearms regulations during the colonial era. Even New York’s concealed carry law is part of a long tradition, starting with Kentucky enacting the first such law in 1813. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that states allowed guns to be carried in public after being pushed by the gun-rights lobby. “Right-to-carry” laws, supporters argued, would deter violent attacks. Subsequent “stand your ground” laws would eliminate the duty to retreat from dangerous encounters. The National Research Council, however, concluded that both laws had no such effect, with some research showing they actually increased violent crime.

Answer 12

The estimated annual cost of gun injury in 2012 exceeded $229 billion—about 1.4% of GDP.

Answer 13

The big picture: According to the Annals of Internal Medicine, there were an estimated 62 million handgun owners in the U.S. in 2021.

Answer 14

The total number of adults owning handguns increased from 38 million in 2015 to 53 million in 2019.

Answer 15

Concealed carry permits increased by 2.3% in 2022 compared to last year even though nearly half the states enacted constitutional carry laws, according to a report published by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC). Those laws say Americans don't need to get a government permit to carry firearms.