Should Guns Laws Be Stricter or Less Strict?

Our group is researching about gun laws to see if they should be stricter or less strict. Many incidents involved with guns have happened lately so there are many debates on whether they should be strict or less strict. On February 14th there was a shooting in Florida at a high school and many states decided to act onto making their schools a better and safer place. According to a recent article in The New York Times, Florida has proposed a package of gun measures that disregards the powerful National Rifle Association but is more on the restrictive measures. Rhode Island, Vermont, and Oregon are making strict laws, proposing restrictive measures such as needing back-round checks in order to buy a gun, and passing bills to make sure their citizens remain safe and protected. Washington has a bill that would raise the age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun with “tactical features” to 21. On the other hand, in Indiana the gun laws have been loosened instead of made stricter because they feel that people need to be able to protect themselves. Not every state has the same opinion and motive.

Looking at this from an economic lens, people, community’s, etc. involved with shootings need to be fixed and dealt with which can be very expensive. With all the mass shootings going on around the United States it costs $229 billion every year to fix things. The economic devastation caused by gun violence tends to get brushed off because Americans think it doesn’t impact them, especially if they live in a safe neighborhood or nowhere near the cities that have a lot of crime. Even though taxpayers are picking up the bill by paying for the medical care of victims on Medicaid and by giving out more money in taxes to pay for law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and jails and prisons. The money used to fix it is taken out of Americans taxes every year and it is affecting everyone a little every year and eventually will become noticeable. The government tries to hide the fact they are taking out of American’s taxes so no one will riot or get upset but it can’t be hidden for long. To pay for this, according to NSSF, the total taxes taken out by the government is $6 billion to fund the things affected by guns. More and more Americans will start to notice every year a change in their taxes and will want to know why.

Gun crimes affect the houses around them along with the people around them. Gun violence can most likely reduce the building of new houses near the crimes and businesses that sell the retail and can make the home value less. According to Finance News, more of neighborhood gun violence causes depopulation, slows down businesses and decreases property values, causing fewer sales and service establishments, very few new jobs, credit scores and homeownership rates. For example, in Minneapolis a report finds that each additional gun homicide in a census tract in a given year was associated with 80 less jobs the next year, while regular home values in Minneapolis census tracts dropped by $22,000.

According to Urban Institute, when a crime happens around houses the house value goes down about 4%, causing less money to be made and less money being payed. When there is an incident around the neighborhood the house owners are forced to have a security system which takes money out of their pocket while being afraid something else is going to occur. Some home owners near the incidents are forced to move which is an even more money taker. Investigations of the gun crimes around the community are about $229 billion a year which is 1.4% of total earnings in the U.S. $169 billion goes to the victim for medical care and what the jury rules out, according to Finance News. $49 billion of the $229 billion is for the money the people could’ve made at work and spending. Gun violence takes out of citizens lives and pockets.

Gun prices can vary from the type of gun it is and who is selling it. The most common guns are pistols, shotguns, rifles, and revolvers. Revolvers are commonly the most expensive out of those which can be up to $900,000, says Quora. It is $13.5 billion for annual revenue of gun and ammunition manufacturing industry, with a $1.5 billion profit. $3.1 billion for annual revenue of gun and ammunition stores, with a $478.4 million profit. The number of pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns and miscellaneous firearms manufactured in the U.S. during 2013 is 10,847,792. That is 4,441,726 pistols, 725,282 revolvers, 3,979,570 rifles, 1,203,072 shotguns, and 495,142 miscellaneous firearms. There are 270-310 estimated number of guns in the U.S. $42.9 billion is an estimated overall economic impact of the firearms and ammo industry in the U.S. With these many guns in the United states there should be many factors to keep the citizens safe in the U.S and there is such as NRA

The NRA works on a quarter of a billion dollars. The organization asset is worth about $163 million. According to OMICS International, The NRA uses their money on lobbying, PACs, and runs ads for policy makers that has the same interest as theirs. They have spent a total of $19,238,779 on lobbying from 1990 to 2016. Since 1990, the NRA has spent almost 22 million on Republicans and Democrats. The association also spent almost $20 million on PACs. The NRA is one of the most powerful groups in history of the United States. The NRA is a powerful organization because it has money and money equals power. It has over 5 million members, and the NRA’s employees have experienced lobbyists who have a way to access policy makers. The NRA hires former legislators and government officials, since they can use their friendships and personal connections to gain access to policy makers which makes them even more powerful.

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