Gun control affects presidential elections

Gun safety vs. gun control has been a very important topic within the past few years and will  impact the 2008 presidential election. There are different views between candidates in the Democratic and Republican parties.

The debate focused on who should be allowed to have a guns and what he or she should have to pass in order to get them has been talked about much more since the latest school shootings.

In the last 11 years there have been over 40 school shootings.  Among the many, the Columbine High School attack and the massacre at Virginia Tech.

On the morning of April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, entered their high school in the small middle-class town of Littleton, Colo.

They went through the school wearing trench coats with semi-automatic weapons concealed.

When the rampage ended 14 were dead, including Klebold and Harris, and 25 were injured.

On April 16, 2007, Cho Seung-Hui, 23, entered a dormitory at Virginia Tech killing two, and then entered a class room, shooting another 31.  This horrific event ended with Seung-Hui ending his own life.

These school shootings have heightened the awareness of how the laws need to be changed in order to protect students and others affected by crime.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic poll leader for the 2008 election, has many important points toward her argument about gun safety. Clinton believes much more advanced and accurate background checks are necessary, guns should be kept away from people that could potentially harm others based on a psychological evaluation and that all weapons should be registered.

“We need to stand firm on behalf of sensible gun control legislation. We have to enact laws that will keep guns out of the hand of children and criminals and mentally unbalanced persons. Congress should have acted before our children started going back to school. I realize the NRA is a formidable political group; but I believe the American people are ready to come together as a nation and do whatever it takes to keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them,” Clinton said in 2000 after the Columbine attack.

During a 2007 Democratic primary debate, after the Virginia Tech shooting, Clinton discussed the risk of allowing people that cannot pass a background check to buy a gun.

“You know, I remember very well when I accompanied Bill to Columbine after that massacre and met with the family members of those who had been killed and talked with the students, and feeling that we had to do more to try to keep guns out of the hands of the criminal and of the mentally unstable,” Clinton said.

“And during the Clinton administration that was a goal,not to, in any way, violate people’s Second Amendment rights, but to try to limit access to people who should not have guns. Unfortunately, we saw the tragedy unfold at Virginia Tech. We now know that the background check system didn’t work, because certainly this shooter, as he’s called, had been involuntarily committed as a threat to himself and others. And, yet, he could walk in and buy a gun,” Clinton said.

Clinton’s main argument dealing with the concerns of gun safety vs. gun control is to make sure that only responsible people who are not a threat to others should be allowed to have them.

Republican poll leader Rudy Giuliani has slightly different views. Giuliani’s main issues concerning gun control are the idea of college students being allowed to carry weapons, people having to pass a written test prior to being able to purchase a gun, and the effect on the right to bear arms and hunting.

At a debate sponsored by Fox News, Giuliani addressed the idea of college students being allowed to carry weapons, “I think states have a right to decide that. We have a federal system. We allow states to make different decisions. The focus of our laws should be on criminals. That’s what I did in New York City.”

Giuliani also addressed a potentially troublesome issue that could cause conflict with conservative voters by saying in 2007 that his policies as mayor to get handguns off the street helped reduce crime in New York.

“I used gun control as mayor, but I understand the Second Amendment. I understand the right to bear arms,” Giuliani said. Giuliani also assured that what he did as mayor would have no effect on hunting.

Giuliani believes that all prospective handgun buyers should have to pass a written test.

“I do not think the government should cut off the right to bear arms. My position for many years has been that just as a motorist must have a license, a gun owner should be required to have one as well. Anyone wanting to own a gun should have to pass a written exam that shows that they know how to use a gun, and that they’re intelligent enough and responsible enough to handle a gun. Should both handgun and rifle owners be licensed…we’re talking about all dangerous weapons,” Giuliani said.

The opinions and ideas of both Clinton and Giuliani on how to deal with the issue of gun control are very important and will have a large impact on the way that people vote in 2008. Both sides should be considered and voters should review all ideas before they turn in their ballots.

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