Gun Rights Protest Final Draft

Henry Laks

Stephanie Brown

English 306

4/14/16  

                                                            The Gun Rights Protest

            Two opposing groups have formed around firearms in America, Gun Rights advocates and Gun Control advocates.  When America was founded and laws were established, there was one identity generally associated with firearms in America. It was defined by the bill of rights, “the right to bear arms”.  The Bill or Rights along with the Constitution are legal documents written to protect citizen’s freedom and liberty in America.  They were written to keep freedom from being lost to tyranny, like the tyranny of Britain which lead to the War for Independence.  The definition of tyranny is “Arbitrary or despotic exercise of power; the exercise of power over subjects and others with a rigor not authorized by law or justice, or not requisite for the purposes of government.  Hence tyranny is often synonymous with the cruelty and oppression,” (Webster).

Tyranny is what the founding fathers and the framers, the ones who actually wrote the constitution, were trying to avoid.  The constitution was written to limit the power of the government, so that it would not infringe upon the rights of individuals and their freedom in America (Bill of Rights institute). 

  Probably the largest underlying question of the debate is to determine what the authors of the second amendment actually meant.  From the gun rights perspective, the line of what is and what is not infringement of an individual’s rights is clearly stated by the second amendment.  They have “the right to bear arms”, thus government regulating firearms is an infringement.  On the other hand, Gun Control activists believe that guns are the cause of many crimes that could have been avoided through regulation.  For that reason, gun control advocates and gun rights advocates quarrel over what the constitution actually means.  This paper will primarily focus on the gun rights side of this argument, and how they have fought against gun control.  I will cover some historical background for the gun rights advocates which will include their first major disputes with gun control activists.  Some of the rhetorical strategies and language will also be discussed, and additionally, one of the largest gun protest items “assault rifles” will be analyzed.          

The Second Amendment is probably the most quoted of these rights by gun rights activists.   “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,” (U.S. Constitution. Amend. II, Sec. 8.).  It is a common misconception that people think that the second amendment says it gives Americans the right to bear arms.  However, the second amendment says “the right of the people… shall not be infringed,” (U.S. Constitution. Amend. II, Sec. 8.).  It does not say anything about giving anyone anything.  The people already have the natural ability to carry guns, and it shall not be infringed upon by the government.  The section of the second amendment which says “well-regulated militia” has unquestionably been an area of dispute. 

Today the meaning of those words “well-regulated” have changed over time from what it originally meant.  If that amendment was written today and enacted, it would be assumed that the government is responsible for keeping the militia regulated.  Back when the second amendment was written, well-regulated meant to keep things in proper working order the phrase had nothing to do with government (Halonen).  The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to limit the government’s power and in this case, it was to restrict the government from regulating firearms. Therefore, the words well-regulated militia refers to self-organized groups of armed American citizens.    

When you look at history from 1791, when Bill of Rights was created, America did not have any gun control laws which effected free citizens until the year of 1934.  Before 1934, gun control laws were passed in some states which prohibited the enslaved black population from carrying firearms.  The first gun control law was enacted in Louisiana 1751, before America was an independent country; It kept any probable weapon out of the hands of black slaves especially firearms (Cramer).  Gun control laws started from the enslaved population, but eventually spread to the free citizens, as well.  The prohibition, which lasted from 1920-1933, caused a substantial amount of criminal activity, which resulted in the passing of the 1934 National Firearms Act (Bureau of Alcohol…National Firearms Act).  The NFA put a $200 tax on NFA firearms for their transfer and creation.  Congress enacted the NFA to exercise their power to tax and to stop transactions which occurred with NFA firearms (Bureau of Alcohol…National Firearms Act). The 1934 NFA was soon followed by the 1968 Act.   

One of the strongest pieces of gun control legislation the Gun Control Act of 1968 is still active today.  What got this law passed was the determination to stop assassinations.  Just before the law had been passed the following assassinations occurred, John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King (Bureau of Alcohol…Gun Control Act).  The law was emplaced to help prevent firearms, ammo, and other dangerous devices such as explosives from getting into the hands of criminals (Bureau of Alcohol…Gun Control Act).  Before this law was enacted the most they had done was require dealers to record weapon purchases.  This is the first big legal effort to stop firearm violence through regulation.  Fully automatic rifles were defined in the Title II of Gun Control Act of 1968 (Bureau of Alcohol…National Firearms Act).  The Title II Act is basically an extension and correction of the 1968 Gun Control Act.  A few years later, the 1986 Firearm Owner’s Protection Act defined what a silencer is and the parts which constitute a silencer.  The act also prohibited machineguns from being lawfully possessed after the date of May 19, 1986.  A machinegun is a fully automatic weapon.  

The Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 is a much more recent big gun control law which passed, but is no longer active.  Jeffrey Roth and Christopher S. Koper wrote a thorough evaluation of this act and how it impacted crime.  They nicely sum up what the act did when it was enacted.  “The Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 bans a group of military-style semiautomatic firearms (i.e., assault weapons) and ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds,” (Koper, Christopher and Jeffrey A. Roth).  The 1944 Act caused a lot of controversy between the two groups, because many assault rifles operate in the same manner as many non-tactical semi-auto rifles do.  However, assault weapons have detachable magazines and are capable of holding larger magazines.  The detachable magazines enable them to hold more bullets and to be reloaded faster, than semi-auto rifles which don’t have detachable magazines (Koper, Christopher and Jeffrey A. Roth).  The 1994 Act banned civilian assault weapons which basically are semi-auto rifles or with modifications.   They can appear to be almost identical to their military counterparts which are fully-automatic. 

              The distinction between a semi-auto versus a full-auto is extremely important.  Roth and Koper give a wonderful definition between the two.  “A semiautomatic weapon fires one bullet for each squeeze of the trigger. After each shot, the gun automatically loads the next bullet and cocks itself for refiring, thereby permitting a somewhat faster rate of fire relative to non-automatic firearms. Semi-automatics are not to be confused with fully automatic weapons (i.e., machine guns), which fire continuously as long as the trigger is held down,” (Koper, Christopher and Jeffrey A. Roth).

These gun control laws and gun rights laws are what the gun debate’s foundation is constructed around.  Understanding them is essential to comprehending what currently is being debated by both sides.  As you have seen gun control legislation is approved when crime involving guns is high; the NFA act and the 1986 act are great examples of that.  The second amendment and its advocates only allow for so much regulation.  When acts such as the assault weapons ban are enacted and don’t have a noticeable effect, they don’t stay around for long.  Since crime statistics are always fluctuating there is not an automatic all out winner to the debate.  For this next portion the paper will focus on the rhetoric used by the gun rights activists to counteract gun control advocate rhetoric.  

                                          Rhetorical Positioning in the Gun Debate

            The Gun Control advocates can be categorized into many different groups, because there are many different reasons why Gun Control advocates want gun regulation.  Gun Rights advocates generally can be categorized into one group they all seem to think similarly and in agreement.  They all generally have firearms for one of the three reasons: self-defense, target shooting, or hunting (Agresti and Smith).  Having a collective identity is one way the gun rights advocates strongly hold their ground, and they have done it effectively.  The question of the Gun Debate is whether or not the gun control legislation has helped to reduce crimes. As America has had population growth it has had an increase of violence, crimes, and an increase in shootings.  Gun rights advocates think that gun control is the reason why there is more crime, and gun control advocates think there should be much stricter gun control to stop the violence in our country.  Recently with in the past decade, well recognized studies have been released showing that gun control is not helping reduce crime.  With these new studies Gun Rights activists are gaining the upper hand in the gun debate.  This paper will point out some significant uses of rhetorical mostly how logos is used by the gun rights group to combat the gun control group’s use of pathos.   

            A rather famous argument is the “more guns cause more crime,” (Cook, James and Kristin A. Goss).  Most criminals don’t purchase guns from a dealer instead they borrow them from friends and family, buy them from a black market dealer, or obtain them through stealing.  Less than 20 % of caught prisoners admit to buying a firearm from a store (Cook, James and Kristin A. Goss).  In America it is estimated that we have in between 270 million and 310 million civilian firearms (Gun Policy.org Civilian guns).  That means we currently have more guns per capita than any other country in the world.  In an environment where guns are easier to come by, a criminal can get one if he wants one.  From that point of view, it would take banning guns and confiscating them altogether to get rid gun crimes, and even if they did somehow obtain all firearms, the weapons used in crime would just change form.  That alone will not stop crime, because if guns are not available and someone “needs to be killed”, the instigators of the crime will improvise and use a knife or another suitable weapon instead.  America will never get rid of its guns unless gun rights activists decide to stop protesting.

             Pro-gun control advocates like to point out that “Legally owned guns are frequently stolen and used by criminals” (Gun Control procon.org).  Gun rights groups point out that “Gun control laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking laws” (Gun control procon.org).  This goes back to the previous argument if a criminal has the determination to break the law he will do it.  If he isn’t supposed to have a gun that will not keep him from getting one.  If a person is legally prohibited from buying firearms at a store he can buy one off the black-market.  With our, quantity of firearms there will always be someone willing to sell firearms illegally for the right money.  On the flipside, gun control laws do prevent law abiding citizens from buying firearms.  John R. Lott, Jr. PhD writer of “More Guns Less Crime” says, 

"The problem with such laws is that they take away guns from law-abiding citizens, while would-be criminals ignore them” (Lott, John: gun control misfires).

Assault rifles have a rather provoking name considering they are simply semi- automatic rifles.  The name is a clever move by gun control advocates using pathos is to make them sound more dangerous.  The name “assault rifle” projects the image of crime on tactical weapons.  The assault rifle’s similarity in appearance to its prohibited fully automatic big brother the “machinegun” is often a point of confusion.  Despite any confusion, an assault is a very violent physical crime punishable by law.  “So-called "Assault weapons" are more often than not less powerful than other hunting rifles. The term "assault weapon" was conjured up by anti-gun legislators to scare voters into thinking these firearms are something out of a horror movie,” (NSSF).

   A popular gun’s right phrase is “Guns don't kill people, people kill people”.    This rhetoric works quite well with logos, because it emphasizes that guns cannot fire by themselves, just as much as a knife cannot stab someone by itself.  This phrase draws the negative attention from the guns to the people actually committing the violence.  It’s observes the problem that needs the most attention.  This rhetoric could still be stronger if it used the word murder rather than kill in the phrase.  Murdering is a crime but killing is not necessarily against the law.  If a man assaults a woman in a parking lot and she kills him out of self-defense, with a gun, that is categorized as killing and its legal.

Jeffrey Snyder wrote an essay on America and how its filled with cowards.  One strong part of his message is the power and responsibility of protecting yourself.  “Is your life worth protecting? If so, whose responsibility is it to protect it?  If you believe that it is the police’s, not only are you wrong-since courts universally rule that they have no obligation to do so-but you face some difficult moral quandaries.  How can you rightfully ask another human being to risk his life to protect yours, when you will assume no responsibility yourself?” (Snyder, Jeffrey).  Snyder represents a large portion of gun rights activists who own guns for self-defense.  If people aren’t willing to protect themselves who will protect them in a bad situation?  Like Snyder points out police can’t always save the day, but you can take the responsibility given to you as a free American and protect yourself with “the great equalizer”.  The gun, the tool that can even the odds when the enemy has the advantage.    

                                                Assault Rifles a Heavily Debated Item

            One of the largest gun controversies in the gun debate is assault weapons, and within that argument “assault rifles” are the most hotly debated popular weapon classification.    Gun rights activists think assault weapons should be legal, because of their effectiveness for self-defense and their adaptability which allows it to be used in multiple ways.  “Assault rifles” get a lot of attention because of their appearance, tactical performance, detachable magazines, and misconceptions of their functionality as a firearm.  This paper is primarily focusing on the gun rights identity, as a result I will pay more attention to the gun rights side of this protest artifact and how they fought against the suggested bans on these weapons.

Many people ask the question of what makes assault rifles so special.  Assault rifles are gun manufactures clever scheme to bypass the laws and restrictions on machineguns.  Assault rifles are an American citizen’s legal alternative to a machinegun.  The Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986 made the possession of burst fires and fully automatic rifles illegal, with the exception of ones made before May 1986 (Bureau…Gun Control Act).  However, law abiding citizens that pass an extensive background check can obtain fully automatic firearms after paying a Special Occupation Tax.   By paying the tax and filling out some paper work, you become legally recognized as a Class 3 weapons holder (NFA Class III).  The process for getting a fully automatic machinegun is more tedious than buying a civilian firearm that does not fall under class 3/title 2 firearm.  For that reason, gun manufacturers started making semi-auto civilian versions of the military’s automatic rifles.

When you compare a civilian assault rifle to a military assault rifle they look identical that explains a lot, because as mentioned earlier there is a lot of confusion surrounding assault rifles because of their appearance.  The picture to the right is a picture of the military’s M4A1 and civilians AR15.  Both guns have a similar external frame, and they shoot the same rounds.  The civilian rifle the AR15 is, according to the 1986 Act, fitted with more restrictive parts than the military m4.  The AR15 is a semiautomatic rifle, and the m4, depending on the model, is either a burst-fire or a fully automatic rifle.  Semi-automatic weapons can fire one shot as quickly as the finger can pull the trigger.  Burst fire weapons shoot a small group of two to three bullets for every pull of the trigger.  A fully automatic rifle can fire many rounds with one pull of the trigger.  That can be easily confused with their appearance and false labels put on the assault rifles.                             

In 1994 the assault weapons ban was enacted.  This legislation banned the possession, transfer, and manufacturing of semi-auto civilian assault rifles (Koper, Christopher S. and Jeffrey A. Roth).  Just to clarify this ban not only prohibited assault rifles, but it also included assault pistols too.  This ban prohibited any weapons specified as assault weapons “that appear to be useful for the military or criminal actions,” (Koper, Christopher S. and Jeffrey A. Roth). It also banned guns that had two or more military-style features.  The military style features give assault rifles and weapons the capability to use equipment that other guns need modification to use.   The ban also included prohibition of large capacity magazines or contraptions that function as magazines which hold more than 10 rounds that can be attached to semiautomatic firearms. “(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful for a person to transfer or possess a large capacity ammunition feeding device,” (Bill Text103rd Congress).  An exception to this ban was magazines made before on the date of the bill, and this ban did not prohibit semi-auto weapons with internal magazines and semi-autos only capable of holding 5 round detachable magazines (Koper and Roth). Large magazines are certainly one of the most important features of assault weapons.

As you can imagine the ban was huge step for the gun control advocates.  A decade before the ban a number of publicized shootings occurred with an assault weapons equipped with large magazines.  That really helped to increase the support for an assault rifle ban.  The logic behind this ban was the presumption that assault weapons with large clips are capable of firing more rounds at a faster rate which increases the probability that criminals can wound more people during a shooting rampage (Koper and Roth).  The Assault weapons ban lasted until 2004, when the ban expired under the Bush administration.

Since the expiration of the 1994 Assault weapons ban a number of politicians have tried to reinstate a new more restrictive ban.  All attempts so far under Obama’s administration have been unsuccessful.  One reason these bans have not been successful is that the ban did not seem to have any noticeable effect on crimes (Koper and Roth).  Despite the failures to get another Act passed that will prohibit assault rifles, the gun control advocates will not give up. 

Today one major misconceptions surrounding assault rifles and weapons is some variation of, “Semi-automatic ‘assault weapons’ are high-powered guns that are meant for war,” (Background Information: NSSF).  Gun rights activists like to counter this by saying assault weapons and rifles in most cases use much smaller rounds than commonly used hunting calibers.  For an instance, assault rifles are chambered in many different calibers, but by far the most popular is the 223. Aka “5.56 AR”.  It is a powerful round, but it’s not as large as the extremely popular 308. hunting round in its power and mass. According to a gun rights advocate, the .223 is good for small and medium game, but it’s not a big round, some states don’t allow its use for large game (Rifle Bullet/Cartridge Guide).  The gun control advocates are right the 223. round was made for the military, but there are other rounds much bigger and even more deadly such as the 30-06 (which is even larger than the .308); it’s the legendary World War II, M1 Garand caliber now used in large game hunting rifles.  Gun rights activists say that just because the assault rifle body and bullets were made for the military, it doesn’t mean it should be kept away from citizens. 

            From my general observation, gun rights advocates like assault rifles for a few different reasons.  They think that assault rifles are very effective for self-defense situations with all of the equipable gadgets that can be mounted on them.  Some gun rights activists simply think they are cool firearms, consequently they should own one. “Remember that you have endless upgrading possibilities so, in time, you can actually own a pretty bad ass rifle,” (David Dawson).  This quote is from an article written by Dawson who is a great example of a gun advocate who loves assault rifles.  In his article he says he likes assault rifles for the protection they can provide, and because all the attachments make it “pretty bad ass”.  Another reason gun advocates love assault rifles is they are good all-around firearms that can be used for certain types of hunting, and last but not least they shoot cheap ammo making them economical for plinking.  Mark Kenyon hates the “demonization” of assault rifles, and to address this in his article he says, “They ask us, why do you need an “assault weapon”? Well let me count the ways …,” (Kenyon).  The five reasons he lists are as follows: predator hunting, deer hunting, self-defense, target shooting, and because it’s my right.  Again we see a similar theme with claiming rights, hunting, and self-defense.              

The debate over assault rifles is very interesting considering all of the elements which make it more complicated, and it is heavily influenced by the larger debate of firearms as a whole.  The civilian assault rifle is basically an identical replica of a military firearm, but the way in which the two types of rifles function is different but comparable enough to stimulate a debate that has lasted for many years.  Right now the verdict on the table, at least from the government’s view, is that no substantial evidence that assault rifles are increasing crime has been presented, therefore why keep from the citizens?  This is where it ties into the larger debate over firearms as a whole.  Right now the gun debate seems to be at a standstill, because neither side has conclusive evidence that will completely end the debate.  However, that could change at any moment if studies come out showing that a group of shootings involved assault rifles, or that a large number of crimes could have been prevented if there was more regulation.  Likewise, more studies could come out that show guns in the hands of civilians is reducing crime.  What happens to firearms in America all has to do with: what the Americans want, how armed people conduct themselves, how the studies and statistical representations influence Americans, and how the government authorities react by enforcing gun control or guns right legislation.

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