By Gregory Luke
Salt Lake Community College
Sociology 1010
Table of Contents
Page 2: Table of Contents
Page 3: Reflection Page 1-what I knew before the research paper.
Page 4: Article 1: What the Courts Really Say About the Second
Amendment
Page 5: Article 2: Gun Violence In America- The 13 Key
Questions
Page 6: Chart 1: 24 States with Strictest Gun Control Law
Page 7: Article 3: False Solutions to Gun Violence
Page 8: Article 4: History of Gun Control and Genocide
Page 9: Chart 2: Genocide Throughout History.
Page 10: Article 5: 11 Facts about Guns
Page 11: Chart 3: Leading Cause of Deaths in the United States in 2011
Page 12: Chart 4: Defensive Use vs. Criminal Use of Firearms
Page 13: Chart 5: Homicides in 2011
Page 14: Reflection Page 2: What I learned That I Didn’t know.
Page 15: Works Cited
Reflection Page 1: What I knew about the subject
before my research.
• Before I started my research, I didn’t know much about gun
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violence, gun control or even about the 2nd Amendment.
I knew that all Americans had the right to own and possess
a firearm.
I knew that every state had different rules on firearms, but
I did not know what they were.
I knew that there was violence in America due to guns, but
I had no idea about any of the crime statistics due to guns.
I knew that our government was trying to pass laws about
gun, but I didn’t know what kinds of laws they were
creating.
Article 1: What the Courts Really Say About the
Second Amendment.
by Tom Greensworth
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The United States Constitution is a system of laws and principles that define the rights of
American citizens and sets limits on what the government can or cannot do.
The first ten amendments (changes to the U.S. Constitution), known as the Bill of Rights (1791),
were added to the Constitution to define and protect the rights of the American people from the
government .
The second amendment says, "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." This simply written
document of the constitution is surrounded by an unusual amount of fog.
Many people will attribute the confusion on the language and words written in this document
such as "militia" and "people". The anti-gun protestors don't want "people" to mean anything
(because everybody then can have a gun) while pro-gun rights don't want "militia" to mean
anything (because then it means that this amendment is all about military power and not
citizen rights to bear arms).
The United States Supreme Court has different opinions to the meaning of the Second
Amendment. In 2008 case of District of Columbia vs. Heller, the Supreme Court made it clear
that the right to "keep and bear arms" by the Second Amendment was an individual right not
connect with services to a militia. A person could use that weapon in traditional, lawful
purposes, such as self defense within the home .
This right is the protection of your property, yourself and your family.
This article is relevant to the subject because without the 2nd Amendment, we would not be able
to have firearms in America.
Article 2: Gun Violence In America- The 13 Key
Questions
By Jonathan Stray
This article had some very interesting points about gun violence, laws, restrictions and many more
things. The author starts out talking about how the United States has one of the highest rates of violent
crimes and homicides, per capita, of any developed countries. This might have to do with the large
number of guns already available in the U.S.; any reduction in gun violence hinges upon whether gun
control laws would actually make it difficult to get a gun. In developed countries, cities with more guns,
have more homicides. The U.S. has far more gun-related killings than any other developed country.
Another point that the author made was that concealed carry laws decreased homicides by an average of
8%. This was a hug surprise to everyone. One of the biggest areas that this article covered was about mass
shootings in America. 2012 was the most bloodiest year for mass shootings in history because of Aurora,
Colorado theatres shootings and the Newton, Connecticut school shootings. With a total of 72 people
dead. What stood out most about this part of the article was that 1.) Mass shootings happen all over the
country. They don't happen in one place all the time. 2.) The killers used a semiautomatic handgun 75% of
the time and a semiautomatic rifle 40% of the time. Both types of weapons were common tools in the
massacres.3.) The guns were obtained legal in 79% of mass shootings. This means that they didn't steal it
and that the criminals passed through background checks.4) Many of the shooters showed signs of
mental illnesses but only 2 cases were diagnoses prior to the massacres. 5.) Lastly, there were no cases
where a armed civilian fired back (except an off duty police officer in the shooting at Trolley Square Mall in
Salt Lake City, Utah 2007). This article is greatly connected to my research topic because it helps people
understand the gun statistics, violence committed with firearms, what the most common use of firearms
in mass shootings, or homicides are, gun control laws and what could be done to reduce gun violence. All
these significant topics are covered in the article.
Chart 1: 24 States with Strictest Gun Control Laws
These are 24 of most strictest gun control states in America. It shows how many
homicides are committed without a gun versus how many are with a gun. These
statistics are important to know because guns are not the only tool use in a crime. Even
states with strict control laws have gun violence and murders committed by firearms.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm
Article 3: False Solutions to Gun Violence
by William Jasper
• In this article the author states the different loopholes in our politician's proposed
gun control and assault rifle bills they were trying to pass. He views that their
programs are aimed at enacting more legislation and more regulations through
expectative orders that would restrict the rights of Americans to bear and keep
arms, even more then it already is.
• He states that banning high capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds,
requiring universal background checks on all firearms sales, and banning assault
rifles is a huge infringement on the 2nd Amendment and that I won't necessarily do
any good. Look at an example of Adam Lanza who brought an assault rifle into
school (illegal), transported a loaded gun in a car (illegal), shot a gun under the
influence of drugs (illegal), was under 21 and carried guns without a permit (illegal).
Would another law, including the ones proposed by president Obama, have stopped
Adam Lanza or any mass murdering-shooters? Obviously not! Armed police might
have helped a little bit or even if the teachers were armed, it might have helped.
• Gun control is not a solution to our problems. Limiting private firearms sales, lifting
gun free zones, and arming citizens can help prevent violence in schools or even in
the streets.
• This article relates to the topic greatly because it helps us understand why more
rules and regulations don't necessarily help reduce gun violence. Gun control
sometimes even limits the ability of good people to help. This article points out
huge holes in our politician's think about guns and proposes possible solutions on
preventing gun violence.
Article 4: History of Gun Control and Genocide
by Dave Melstrand
In this article the author points out how throughout history, governments
have disarmed their citizens only to tyrannize them once they were disarmed. There
are 7 governments in history that are known for genocide throughout the years;
Ottoman Turkey 1915-1917 killed 1.5 million Armenian people, Soviet Union 19291953 murdered 20 million Russian people who were anti-communists or antiStalinists, Nazi Germany 1933-1945 killed 13 million Jews, Gypsies and Anti-Nazis,
China 1949-1952,1957-1960,1966-1976, killed 20 million Anti-Communists, Rural
populations and Pro-reforms groups, Guatemala 1960-1981 slaughtered 100,000
Mayan Indians, Uganda 1971-1979 killed 300,000 Christians and political rivals, and
Cambodia 1975-1979 killed 1 million people. All these massacres could have been
avoided if the populaces wasn't disarmed by their governments in the first place.
This article connect history and guns control together. This is the reason why our
founding fathers created the 2nd Amendment in the first place, to keep the citizens
armed against a tyrannical government. The loss of this freedom can have grave
consequences.
This chart shows the genocide committed by various countries throughout world history.
All these countries imposed some sort of gun control laws before committing these
atrocities.
http://www.mercyseat.net/gun_genocide.html
Article 5: 11 Facts about Guns
by Timothy Blake
 This article has 11 really interesting fact about guns. These fact include how many
guns are owned by Americans; which is close to 270 million firearms. How many
firearms were manufactured in America in 2010; 5.5 new million guns. This article
goes into how many people died from guns in 2011 or were victims of gun related
crimes; a rough estimate of 100,00. And most importantly, it looks into what the
government is planning on doing about the private sales of firearms to criminals or
people who didn't pass background checks. These are all really good facts about gun
control laws, shootings, and guns in general because It helps people understand the
magnitude of gun violence in America and what needs to be done.
Chart 3: Leading Cause of Deaths in the United
States in 2011
I wanted to compare the leading causes of deaths to deaths caused by guns in the
United States. I thought that comparing these different stats might help people
understand that there are greater problems in our country then gun violence. People are
13 times more apt to die from heart disease in American rather than by a gun. Gun
violence is awful but our country has many bigger problems on its plate.
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Chart 4: Defensive Use vs. Criminal Use of
Firearms
This pie chart helps us understand the percentage of users who utilize a firearm for
personal defense, or in legal situations verse people who exploit guns in criminal
situations such as robbery, murder and rape.
http://www.toraradical.com/2012/07/does-research-and-statistics-support.html
Chart 5: Homicides in 2011
One of the most important thing to understand about his topic of guns and gun
control, is that many crimes are committed by other weapons. Assault rifles may be
the tool of a psychopath in a school, by most of the crimes are committed with
handguns, knives, blunt objects and even our own bodies.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2013/01/16/assault-rifles-are-not-involved-inmany-u-s-murders-a-look-at-the-data/
Reflection 2: What I learned That I Didn’t know.
This research paper about gun, gun violence and gun control was very informative. I learned many things
such as the meaning of the 2nd Amendment, what the crime rates are from firearms, historical facts about gun
disarmaments, what the different laws are about guns and many more things. Overall this paper helped me
understand the topic about gun violence in America.
A good place to start on what I learned is about the 2nd Amendment. Every American has the right to
bear arms and use them in personal defense. Many states have different laws about carrying a weapon though. It
is important to understand those laws before entering a new state because a person can get in huge trouble for
carrying a weapon. In the state of Utah, a person can legal carry around a handgun or assault rifle in plain view.
The weapon cannot be loaded and must be 3 steps away from firing. These threes step are; 1.) Safety off. 2.)
Cocking the gun. and 3.) Pulling the trigger. A person can get a concealed weapon permit and those three steps do
not apply anymore. The most important rule of all is that a person cannot wield a weapon in an "attack position"
in public, unless the citizen is using it for personal protection.
One of the greatest things that surprised me was violence statistics about guns and other weapons of
destruction. Since our politicians were on fire about assault rifles, I just assumed that criminals were using these
weapons for most of their crimes. I was wrong. Handguns were the most common tool used in many crimes. I was
confused on why our politicians were not going after our handguns since they were the biggest culprits in
committing homicides. This helped me understand why many of the laws that our government was trying to
impose on the citizens was not going to work. Crimes are still going to be committed by desperate criminals but
the only difference would be that the victims would be left defenseless. This research opened up my eyes wide
open on the crime rates in United States.
There are many ways that I can use this information that I learned about this topic. Firstly, I know my
2nd Amendment rights in the state of Utah. If a law enforcement officer or federal agent wants to take my guns
away from me unlawfully, I have the right to defend myself and my property. I know that if they try to confiscate
any of my firearms, that they face prison time (new Utah law that just passed-House Bill 114). The second way that
I can use this information is by filtering news media that gives misguided information about guns. Since I have a
better understanding of my rights, guns, and violence statistics I can understand when politicians are giving out
false information. Lastly, I can use this information to change policies on gun control in the future by voting for
the right politicians. This information helps me understand what I stand for and helps me identify leaders who
can make a difference about this issue. I can take all this data and information I learned from the report and use it
in my everyday life.
Works Cited
 Blake, Timothy. "11 Facts About Guns." Do Something. DoSomething.org, 2 Feb. 2013. Web. 14
Apr. 2013. <http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-guns>.
 Greensworth, Tom. "What the Courts Really Say About the Second Amendment." What the
Courts Really Say About the Second Amendment. Ethical Spectacle, 3 May 2011. Web. 18 Apr.
2013. <http://www.spectacle.org/996/2d.html>.
 Jasper, William F. "False Solutions to Gun Violence." False Solutions to Gun Violence. The
New America, 20 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/14797-false-solutions-togun-violence>.
 Melstrand, Dave. "Gun Control and Genocide." Gun Control and Genocide. Mercy Seat
Christian Church, 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.mercyseat.net/gun_genocide.html>.
 Stray, Jonathan. "Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise
Answers)." The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 4 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/gun-violence-in-america-the-13key-questions-with-13-concise-answers/272727/>.
 United States. Center for Disease Control. National Center of Health Statistics. Center for
Disease Control and Prevention. United States Government, 24 July 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm>.