Federal Gun Control: What’s Next After the Brady Act?
Over twenty years have passed since President Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (known as the “Brady Act”). With the publicity surrounding recent school shootings and other mass shooters, people are outraged over gun control policy. Within the past year, there have been forty-seven school shootings. Twenty-six of the school shootings resulted in injury or death to innocent victims, whereas the other shootings were either attempted or completed suicides, where no bystanders were injured or killed. The History of Gun Control To understand the current-day gun policy, a historical approach must be taken. The Second Amendment, which was ratified in 1791, reads, “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.” Around that time, there were even laws that required every able-bodied man to possess a firearm and enroll in the militia. Federal gun control started in the early 1900s, and over the years, there have been numerous additions and amendments. One law, known as the Gun Control Act of 1968, banned mail orders of shotguns and rifles and was spurred by the tragic assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. [read more]