Gun Control: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

International Gun Control Laws Compared to the United States

The United States does not have very strict gun laws as a whole, but when you get the the different states, that is where the real laws begin. "The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits the sale of firearms to several categories of individuals, including persons under eighteen years of age, those with records, mentally disabled, unlawful aliens, dishonorably charged military personnel, and other." (pbs.org) In 1993, the law was amended which mandates background checks for all unlicensed persons purchasing a firearm from a federally licensed dealer. Now, the U.S. as a whole has the right to bear arms, but the gun laws differ from state to state. It is up to the gun owner to be up to date on all of these laws while traveling through different states. Hawaii, California, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland give the government complete discretion over the issuance of carry permits, and where that discretion is normally used to deny the issuance of permits. In the following states Arizona, Alaska, Wyoming, Kansas, Mississippi, Maine, and Vermont one does not have to obtain a permit to open or conceal carry a firearm. (nraila.org) This is only a few of the gun laws in place by certain states, and there is much more. If you want to see different laws for the states go to https://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/.  Though the United States does have strict gun laws in certain states, the international gun laws are far more strict. 

In Canada, "A person wishing to acquire a restricted firearm must obtain a federal registration certificate, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police."(cfr backgrounders) The Canadian  gun laws have been driven by prior gun violence.  In Australia, "The National Agreement on Firearms all but prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, stiffened licensing and ownership rules, and instituted a temporary gun buyback program that took some 650,000 assault weapons (about one-sixth of the national stock) out of public circulation."(cfr.org)  Analysts say this has been highly effective and the death by gun rates have decease significantly.  Many suggest that Australia could serve as a model for the United States. In Israel, "To become licensed, an applicant must be an Israeli citizen or a permanent resident, be at least twenty-one-years-old, and speak at least some Hebrew, among other qualifications. Notably, a person must also show genuine cause to carry a firearm, such as self-defense or hunting."(Cfr.org) Finally, with Japan being the lowest person to gun ratio, "To become licensed, an applicant must be an Israeli citizen or a permanent resident, be at least twenty-one-years-old, and speak at least some Hebrew, among other qualifications. Notably, a person must also show genuine cause to carry a firearm, such as self-defense or hunting." (cfr.org)

According to a 2007 Small Arms Survey, the U.S. ranks number one in firearms per capita and the highest homicide-by-firearm rate at 3.54 people per 100,000, among the worlds most developed countries. The United States has about eighty-eight point eight guns per one hundred people. That's about forty-two percent of all of the guns in the world. When a country owns almost half of the guns in the world, it comes with the territory of the highest death rate by guns. That's because, there is no one with the amount of guns like us to compare us to. Just like Iran being the number one drug addicted country in the world, it comes with the territory of  fourteen million of the entire adult population being addicted to drugs. When comparing countries, America always looks like the bad guy because of the number of firearms in this country.  If we break this down to just the United States alone and stop comparing us to other countries you might see that guns aren't as big as of an issue as everyone sees them to be.

• Country Details. WhichCountry.co. 11 November 2015. http://www.countrydetail.com/top-10-drug-addicted-countries-in-the-world-with-most-drug-use/. Accessed 12 October 2016.
• Master, Jonathan, Deputy Editor. CFR Backgrounders. U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparison. 12 January 2016. http://www.cfr.org/society-and-culture/us-gun-policy-global-comparisons/p29735. Accessed 12 October 2016
• NRA-ILA Gun Laws, https://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/. Accessed 12 October 2016.