Gun Control, a term that refers to the management of firearms in an effort to reduce the criminal use of these weapons. (MICROSOFT (R) ENCARTA 1995) In the early 1990s there were more than 200 million privately owned guns in the United States, which makes it plain to see why there are arguments for and against even the smallest amount of gun control. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, guarantees, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.".
In the 1930s a law passed by the federal government that required people wishing to own or possess a fully automatic or sawed-off barrel firearm to pay a $200 registration fee. This law was amended in 1986 to ban the manufacture of fully automatic firearms. (MICROSOFT (R) ENCARTA 1995) Some of the U.S. cities, such as Washington D.C., Chicago, and New York City, place restrictions on handgun ownership. A few cities across the U.S. have banned handguns entirely. A federal law restricts handgun ammunition capable of piercing body armor, and also requires that guns with plastic parts to contain enough metal in the gun to be detectable amount of metal. Law enforcement groups are among the most influential supports for a stricter gun control laws.
Efforts to pass national gun control laws have met fierce opposition from gun lobbyist. However in 1993, after a seven-year battle, the congress of the United States passed the Brady bill, which requires prospective gun buyers to wait five working days before actually taking possession of their firearms. The bill was named after former White House press secretary James Brady, who became a proponet of gun control after being shot and seriously wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
Bill Clinton heads the most anti-Second Amendment Administration in our history, and he is very proud of it. He has signed into law two of the most restrictive / contriviersal law on federal gun control in our nations history.
