Essay Example on US Gun Control Debate: Military-Grade Weapons Accessibility

Recently, there have been significant cases of military-grade weapons ownership in the United States, mainly due to the ease of access to assault weapons in different states. The high-profile mass massacres or shootings in America is a clear indication of the use of military-grade weapons with weapons such as the AR-15 rifle being used. Such events are a clear indication of the accessibility of guns in the United States. Even though there have been significant debates concerning US gun control, most of the military-grade weapons remain easily accessible as an issue that could lead to significant events of violence and mass shootings. Also, based on the fact that gun laws vary between states, more often than not, the states do not restrict the accessibility to military-grade weapons. For example, in states such as Ohio and Texas, buying military-grade weapons is legal, and one can use the guns with large-capacity magazines and could carry weapons as long as they have a permit. This paper will discuss the access to military-grade weapons and solutions to limit the ease, such as medical and psychological clearance.

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The ease of access to military-grade weapons is a critical issue due to the increasing cases of mass shootings, theft, and terrorist activities in the United States. Most of the questions on the US gun control issue lie on the fact that individuals can acquire assault weapons easily. Since this is an issue on the ease of access to military weapons, identifying the vendors would be critical. Often, the individuals acquiring military-grade weapons do not purchase them from the licensed gun vendors but illegally buy guns. It means that dealing with the loopholes where military-grade weapons are sold would ensure that access is mitigated. In other cases, the gun vendors should be vetted whereby before one is allowed to own a gun dealership shop, there are undertake through psychological and medical tests (Pirelli, Wechsler, & Cramer, 2015). In mental and medical tests, the process should be conducted on the vendors to ensure that they can operate the business as expected. In as much as the buyers should attain psychological and medical clearance, the vendors should acquire the permission as well. In other cases, the National Rifle Association should oversee the making of regulations that deliver barriers to the access of military-grade weapons to make it hard for individuals to access the military-grade weapons (Reich & Barth, 2017). As the gun laws vary between states, the regulations by the NRA will ensure all the states adhere to the rule whereby before an individual is given the permit to carry guns, they should undergo a psychological evaluation (Reich & Barth, 2017). The lack of law enforcement restricting the ease of access to military-grade weapons is one of the major issues connected to the need for psychological and medical clearance.

One of the recommendations to enacting a prevention policy of accessing weapons is applying background checks before issuing them. Moreover, the government can also adopt a law to ban any military-grade weapons from being accessed by civilians. Another means to reduce the access to them is by conducting a crackdown that will seize the gun traffickers that can be undertaken by increasing law enforcers and lawful punishments. The law enforcers can be required to track down and charging any individual illegally owning these guns before prosecuting them. However, as per the National Rifle Association, strongly opposes this and proposes that the case of mass shooting across the USA to be caused because of the untreated mental disorders among the gun handlers (Reich & Barth, 2017). Hence, they recommend for national research to come up with people with mental disorders.

Many proponents of gun control and banning in the USA came up with a common ground to ease the access of the lethal weapons that is mental illness. They suggested that the only way to reduce mass killing across the nation is by reducing easy access to guns to people with mental illness. The government needs to invest mainly in boosting mental health treatment and screening as a policy that will help curb easy access to lethal weapons.

Studies have connected much suicide to be caused by guns. According to many researches, many suicides are accused by people with mental disorders. According to the CDC, about 61% of deaths are connected to firearms fatalities. Still, about 44% of these suicides are caused by mental disorders (American Public Health Association, 2018). Many of the mass shootings around the USA are connected to the gun handlers who had previously suffered from mental illness such as bipolar disorder, severe depression, and schizophrenia. A lot of mass shootings are associated with pathological impulsive anger that unveils as a personality trait that manifests in an aggressive way that can be become extremely dangerous if the person owns a military-grade weapon. Many studies have also shown that anger being one of the significant symptoms among many psychological disorders (Swanson et al., 2016).

However, to assert the mental illness associated with lethal damage when combined with military-grade weapons, the government needs a database on people affected with mental disorders who displays anger as a symptom. Henceforth, this will help in coming up with ways to impose psychological treatment and screening before issuing of the military-grade weapons (Pirelli et al., 2015).

Medical background checks will help in curing easy access to these weapons. Disorder such as dementia can change the gun handers to be violent, causing a lot of damages. Patients who have suffered dementia can occasionally manifest impairments such as memory deficit, executive dysfunction, and visuospatial that can change them to being lethal without their conscience. In many cases, dementia can go undetected, hence having a medical background check will help vet buyers of the military-grade weapons. The caregiver of patients diagnosed with dementia can also be trained and assessed on their competency to control their patients to avoid risks. The doctor will be supposed to issue a background check form of the accessed person before acquiring a lethal weapon. It will help in reducing easy access to anyone who may have a previous diagnose with mental illness who may lead to fatal damages.

Conclusion

With the surfacing debates concerning the issue of gun control in the United States, there is a need for interventions to limit the ease the access of to military-grade weapons. On numerous occasions, as the military-grade weapons have been used to render attack and mass shooting, it creates the need for quick solutions. However, with interventions such as medical and psychological clearance, this creates a significant barrier to the access of military-grade weapons. In the medical tests, they should be done by approved and licensed psychologists to ensure that the interventions do not lead to other issues. In different ways, the psychological clearance is meant to restrict the issuance of permits and curb the possession of the firearms to characters that have a history of mental illness and other issues connected to medical conditions.

References

American Public Health Association. (2018). Reducing Suicides by Firearms. Retrieved from https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2019/01/28/reducing-suicides-by-firearms

Pirelli, G., Wechsler, H., & Cramer, R. J. (2015). Psychological evaluations for firearm ownership: Legal foundations, practice considerations, and a conceptual framework. Professional psychology: research and practice, 46(4), 250.

Reich, G., & Barth, J. (2017). Planting in fertile soil: The National Rifle Association and state firearms legislation. Social Science Quarterly, 98(2), 485-499.

Swanson, J. W., Easter, M. M., Robertson, A. G., Swartz, M. S., Alanis-Hirsch, K., Moseley, D., ... & Petrila, J. (2016). Gun violence, mental illness, and laws that prohibit gun possession: evidence from two Florida counties. Health Affairs, 35(6), 1067-1075.