Gun Control topics in the 2020 election cycle:

Armed Teachers: After school shootings, the anti-gun position focuses on restrictions on guns and ammunition and increased background checks. The pro-gun position focuses on increased security measures including arming teachers. 2018)
• ANTI-arming-teachers: (National Education Association): Most law enforcement experts agree that school staff should not carry guns because they lack the tactical knowledge of handling weapons that trained law enforcement personnel receive on a regular basis. More importantly, educators themselves do not want to be armed in their classrooms.
• PRO-arming-teachers: (retired teacher OpEd in Cincinnati Enquirer): Many of the teachers qualified to be armed are prior military personnel with extensive training with numerous firearms--and are willing to stand between their students and an armed assailant. Without armed teachers, the school officials would call for the police to come; it would take up to 20 minutes for the police to make it.
• TRUMP: Teachers with gun training should be allowed to carry (Feb 2018)
• PENCE: Gun ownership increases public safety (Jan 2016)
• BIDEN: Moral obligation to diminish senseless gun violence (Jan 2013)
• HARRIS: We cannot tolerate society with our babies being slaughtered (Feb 2018)

Reciprocal Carry: States have different rules as to how or whether one is licensed to carry a concealed weapon. States with "reciprocity" accept those out of state gun owners even if the issuing state has different standards. Democrats generally restrict or oppose reciprocity; Republicans generally allow gunowners with concealed carry in their own state to travel freely.
• ANTI-reciprocity (Brady United): [Reciprocal-carry bills] would allow persons in one state to "shop around" and apply for a concealed carry permit in less restrictive states like Utah where persons can apply for a concealed carry permit simply by going online. Violence crime rates increase in states with weak laws on carrying hidden guns.
• PRO-reciprocity (NRA):
  1. Exercising a right shouldn't be contingent upon what state you're in.
  2. You don't want to be an accidental criminal.
  3. Concealed carry permit holders are among the most law-abiding citizens in the country.
  4. Reciprocity laws can change with little notice.
  5. Law-abiding concealed carriers can protect you.
• TRUMP: Make concealed-carry permits valid across all states (Nov 2015)
• PENCE: National cross-state standard for concealed carry (Jan 2009)
• NEWS: Latest statements on Second Amendment from presidential candidates and political pundits

Gun Manufacturer Liability: Congress passed bills giving gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits for the actions of those using their guns. The pro-gun control position would be to remove this immunity, allowing courts to consider the responsibilities of gun manufacturers for how their products are used. The anti-gun control position supports this law, arguing it places responsibility on those using the guns to harm others.
• PRO-gun liability (Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence): Dangerous products and careless industry practices are normally held in check by the possibility of civil litigation that enables injured individuals to recover monetarily. This principle does not apply to the gun industry because it has obtained unprecedented immunity from this longstanding system of accountability.
• ANTI-gun liability (Wayne LaPierre, NRA): " History will show that [gun lawsuit bans] helped save the American firearms industry from collapse under the burden of ruinous and politically motivated lawsuits."
• BIDEN: Voted NO on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers (Jul 2005)
• PENCE: Voted YES on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse (Apr 2003)

Assault Weapon Ban: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, under then Judiciary Committee chairman Joe Biden, included an assault weapon ban. It expired in 2004. The pro-gun control position is to restore the ban as part of overall gun policy, saying it would limit the number of mass shootings. The anti-gun control position is that it violates the Second Amendment and did little to reduce gun violence.
• PRO-ban: (Senator Dianne Feinstein 2013): Proposed legislation would ban the sale of:
  • All semiautomatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and
  • have at least one military feature: pistol grip; forward grip; folding or detachable stock; grenade launcher or rocket launcher; barrel shroud; or threaded barrel.
  • All ammunition feeding devices (magazines, strips, and drums) capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.
• ANTI-ban: (NRA): The study of the federal "assault weapon ban" found that the ban had no impact on crime. Americans own over eleven million AR-15s and buy hundreds of thousands of new ones every year. AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles are not fully automatic, military-grade firearms. Ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds are standard equipment for many handguns and rifles that Americans keep for self-defense.
• TRUMP: For assault weapon ban, waiting period, & background check (Jul 2000)
• BIDEN: Keep assault weapons ban; close gun show loophole (Apr 2007)
• HARRIS: No reason we have assault weapons in a civil society (Jan 2019)
• NEWS: Latest statements on Assault Weapon Ban from presidential candidates and political pundits

Gun Massacres Mass shootings dominated discussion in several presidential debates in 2015, and the 49 people killed in the Orlando massacre in June 2016 ensures the issue will remain part of the presidential debates indefinitely. According to GunViolenceArchive.org, the ten deadliest mass shootings of 2015:
• Dec.2: San Bernardino CA, 16 killed, 19 injured
• Oct.1: Roseburg OR, 10 killed, 9 injured
• Aug.8: Houston TX, 8 killed
• July 23: Lafayette LA, 3 killed, 9 injured
• June 17: Charleston SC, 9 killed
• June 7: Deer Lodge MT, 5 killed
• May 17: Waco TX, 9 killed, 18 injured
• Apr.16: Phoenix AZ, 5 killed
• Feb.26: Tyrone MO, 8 killed, 1 injured
• Feb.7: Douglasville GA, 5 killed, 2 injured
• NEWS: Latest statements on mass shootings from presidential candidates and political pundits

Statistics on Gun Ownership
• 40% of all US homes have guns
• 81% of Americans say that gun control will be an important issue in determining which Congressional candidate to vote for.
• 91% of Americans say that there should be at least minor restrictions on gun ownership;
• 57% of Americans say that there should be major restrictions or a ban.

Child-Safety Locks

• In 1996, 140 children died after being accidentally shot; in 2012 the figure was 259 with comparable numbers in between.
• About 1,500 children are hurt by guns every year.
• "Trigger Locks" require entering a combination to use the gun (or some other locking method); they are intended to reduce inadvertent use by children or other unauthorized users.

Gun control

• Advocates of gun control cite the large number of people killed in gun-based homicides each year: over 8,000 per year, peaking at 14,000 in 1993.
• Over 100,000 people are shot each year in the U.S.; 72% of all violent killings use guns as the weapon.
• Compared to Japan, where gun laws are very strict regarding both ownership and punishment, only 4 people were killed by guns in 2012. Japan has a smaller population, but even counting that, the per capita death rate is 1,000 times higher in the United States.

Background Checks

• The "Gun-Show Loophole" means that there are no background checks when purchasing guns in a private transaction.
• Guns sold at gun shows through dealers ARE subject to background checks; only those sold privately are not.

Right to Bear Arms

• The Supreme Court ruled in 1939, in a case called "US v. Miller," that the 2nd amendment only protects guns suitable for a well-regulated militia -- for example, sawed-off shotguns can be banned because they're not "ordinary military equipment".
• Since 1939, the Supreme Court has not heard any further 2nd amendment cases; the most recent ruling prior to “Heller”, in 1997, overturned part of the 1993 Brady Bill, but did not address 2nd amendment rights.
• “Heller” refers to a ruling on the issue of “individual rights”. The Supreme Court ruled, in the 2008 case called “District of Columbia v. Heller”, that the 2nd Amendment does define an individual right to gun ownership, as opposed to a “collective right” for a state-run and state-armed National Guard.
• Much discretion was left to the states and to Congress, but Heller opens up the issue to further Supreme Court cases.
• Hence, gun control issues are still primarily the subject of Congressional legislation.
• Federal discussions on gun control often focus on the “D.C. handgun ban” because Congress has direct control over the gun laws of the District of Columbia. One such law was at issue in the Heller case.

Gun Control Buzzwords

• The biggest component of the Gun Control debate is whether existing gun laws are sufficient, or whether more gun laws are needed.
• Liberals and populists generally favor more gun laws. Look for buzzwords like "more registration" or "more licensing" to describe seeking further restrictions legal ownership; or "close the loopholes" and "restrict access" for further restrictions on illegal ownership.
• Moderate liberals and populists will generally favor more restrictions on ownership while paying lip-service "sportsmen's rights" or respecting "the right of self-protection." A moderate compromise is to "extend waiting periods" before allowing ownership, to perform "background checks" of varying degrees of severity.
• Conservatives and libertarians generally oppose gun laws. Look for buzzwords like "Second Amendment rights" or "allow concealed carry". A call for "instant background checks" pays lip-service to gun-control advocates: it sounds like a restriction, but means allowing purchasing guns on the spot.
• Moderate conservatives and libertarians oppose gun laws while acknowledging that restrictions are inevitable. Look for buzzwords like "enforce existing gun laws," which implies not passing any NEW gun laws. Similarly, "more strict enforcement" of gun laws implies a pro-Gun Rights stance, unless it is accompanied by a call for new gun laws.
• Centrists and moderates from both the right and left generally support restrictions on juvenile access to guns, especially in the wake of tragedies like Littleton and other gun-related deaths.
• Positive mentions of the NRA (the National Rifle Association, the largest pro-gun rights lobbying group) implies support of gun rights, while opposing the NRA or "taking on the gun lobby" implies support of gun restrictions.
• Many states have Stand Your Ground laws, justifying the use of deadly force when threatened, in contrast with the legal principle of an “obligation to retreat” first. The Florida version of the “stand your ground” law gained national attention in February 2012 in the case of Trayvon Martin shooting. Martin, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by a “neighborhood watch” coordinator, George Zimmerman. Citing the “stand your ground” law, Zimmerman was not initially charged, but was later arrested. Zimmerman was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter in July 2013. Since then, the mainstream media report regularly on Zimmerman’s new arrests & police encounters, including a “road rage” incident in Sept. 2014.
• The Newtown, Connecticut shootings in December 2012 reignited the debate on gun regulation. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members in a mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Several bills were proposed in the 2013 Congressional session: banning the sale of semi-automatic firearms, and restricting large-capacity magazines.

Amendment II to the US Constitution
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. (1791)