America, the Promised Land, the land of opportunity, the land of hope ...  but is it truly what people think it is? The country that people believe will protect them isn't exactly what they think due to the violence that has been ensuing within our states. The main issue that is happening is the fact that the people who obtain the weapons are people who shouldn't have them. This is affecting the safety of our country, people aren't feeling safe anymore and now looking to guns for safety.  Our government cannot take away the right to keep and bear arms since the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights states clearly that everyone who lives here has the right to bear arms. But there has to be a way of monitoring it. This could be enforced by a new and completely changed background check system. This would allow everyone to be checked before actually purchasing a weapon. It would look you up to see if you are suitable for gaining possession of a firearm. If not, no sale of weapons will take place.  If a new background checks system is introduced, the deaths caused by gun violence will go down significantly, since the main reason the violence keeps growing is that fact that the wrong people are getting the guns. 

Our country has a lust for blood since it was first created. The fact that we took this land by force from the native people proves my point. We fought an Independence War to not pay taxes and free ourselves from the British; we were in many world wars; and now we have come to modern times where it has come to drive-by shootings and gang shootouts.  Throughout our history, there are many cases where our country has a sort of affection for violence but we must control it if we want to be the great country that we have the potential to be. The murder rate in the United States currently continues to grow day by day.  A recent article by BBC stated that there were several states that saw an incredible jump in murder rates "with at least 30 cities reporting a rise in violence" (BBC). It goes on to explain some numbers city by city: Milwaukee showed a 76% increase over the year, the biggest out of all. Other notables included St. Louis with a 60% increase, and Baltimore with a 56% increase. This situation is just getting out of hand, with these rates jumping up by almost more then a half in most cities. 

With that being said about the steady increase in crime rates, the United States has about 6 cities in the top 50 "most dangerous cities in the world." Some of them include St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, and New Orleans. This statistic is based on the highest murder rate in the world by city (World Atlas). There are so many organizations that are fighting against gun violence such as; The Brady Campaign, The coalition to stop gun violence, and Newtown Action Alliance, and etc. They organize protests every day where people are telling other people to put down the guns and use their words instead (Salsa). Our country has a serious problem with the number of shootings happening now. For a fact, in Chicago there are neighborhoods in which people swear they need guns to protect themselves due to the crazy violence. When you see these crime rates increasing daily, you realize that something needs to be done quickly to curb these murder rates. That is where the background check system comes into play. (Encyclopedia) 

Before jumping into his plan, we need to know what background truly means. A background is "information about what has happened in the past that helps you to understand the present situation", knowing this we can fully understand what the system is doing (Macmillandictionary). In a recent meeting with his joint staff, President Obama explained how a new background check system would be put in place before he leaves office. His action calls for every shop that is selling any type of weapon to have a license to sell. Also, this new system would subject buyers to background checks. The main reason for the license is so that the government can make sure that every business that is supplying weapons is doing so in a correct way and is not doing any underground business with criminals. Any shop without a license will be fined 250,000 dollars and the owner could be thrown in prison for a minimum of 5 years.(NCSL)

This new license system could decrease the murder rate as many weapons are sold in underground shops that the government doesn't know about. With many shops not being able to be under watch by the government, this is a great way to lower the distribution of guns to people who shouldn't have them. In this action, President Obama also calls for 200 new agents that will be in charge of enforcing these certain laws within the states (NCSL). A whole division of agents making sure gun shop owners are following these strict rules is one factor that could prevent the illegal transactions. This way, people will not be able to obtain the weapons unlawfully. The goal of the system isn't to take out all the guns as President Obama stated in his Town Hall meeting. The goal is to create a system that is "efficient and doesn't inconvenience lawful gun owners, to create a background check system that would stem some illegal gun activity" (CNN Town Hall). As we see, the new system is supposed to lower the violence by lowering the number of weapons in circulation. There will always be some sort of violence happening. The bigger problem is that people are easily obtaining assault weapons with huge magazines. These weapons are the key in many major mass shootings that have happened around our country within the last two years. 

President Obama's new action also calls for an intense background check for purchasing assault weapons because of their ability to hurt more people. No one needs an assault rifle in a city. That is just asking for problems. But a major key to most shootings is the mental state of the person who is purchasing a gun. This is another point that President Obama wants to add to the background check system. His plan calls for a mental health history to be included in the background checks of people who are buying guns. People with mental illness will not be able to buy guns because they should not be handling weapons. (NCSL)

Cases like Aurora, a shooting where more then 12 people were killed and 52 injured show mental illness as a major factor in these murders (Los Angeles Times). But there are more cases too like Sandy Hook as well where the shooter Adam Lanza entered a school and shot 20, 6 to 7 year olds(NYDailyNews). These cases are prime examples of why the background check system is needed now, as it could of stopped these people from gaining access to weapons. The safety of our loved ones is on the lines, if we keep ignoring the issue, more and more cases will come. That's why its time to finally put something up that the government to step in and stop these unstable people from gaining access to a firearm. The bill of rights may be there but there are some people that have lost their right to have it with the choices they made. 

Indeed, this background check system is a great way to try and stop most of the violence that is happening. But at the same time, are the criminals really getting their weapons from a normal, legal gun store? No, not really. The biggest source for their weapons is an underground network originating in other countries. These are guns that don't have a track here in the United States since they don't have a serial number. (Frontline) This is where the so-called system needs to have a back up for these types of issues. But it looks like President Obama has thought of this. The 200 agents enforcing the licenses will allow the normal police force and the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) to hopefully work towards finding these illegal networks and shutting them down. These networks are also the source of violence because they are connected to the drug trade. Traffic of drugs is fueled by selling of weapons. According to Ammoland, an article on the connections between the war on drugs and weapon violence states: "Research shows that the war on drugs creates a large portion of global and local violence." (Ammoland). This can also be connected to gang violence that is increasing also as most of the violence is due to other gangs taking drug corners from other gangs. So the drug trade is fueling the gun trade which in turn then feeds the violence around the country. The increase of violence is part due to the major shootings that happen every day in slums where gangs enter other gang territory. These officers can also be used later when the system has success to hopefully get the guns out of these gang members hands to stop the violence connected with gang shootouts (Encyclopedia.com).

This will bring us to one of the last points in President Obama's new background check system that requires good communication between the federal level and the state level on criminal history so that the background checks can be the best they can be. (NCSL) This is needed because it would curb the selling of any type of weapon to someone with any type of criminal background. This would stop even a misdemeanor possession charge to be a flagged person and not allow him to purchase a weapon. This will truly stop many men from getting a firearm. The background check system will be so detailed that it will stop even the ones who believe their petty crimes won't be tracked. They will also try to include some sort of background check for teens and young adults. Even if they don't exactly have a criminal history, if they ever had possession in high school without involving the police, that will be recorded as well. This whole new background system is mostly the government finally getting involved in the sales of weapons. They are always on the outside of it, but with these laws they are now granting themselves the power to control a network of weapons now, being able to track them everywhere. (PMC)

This whole new background system is a great step in the right direction for the government as the people need direction with big issues. If the background check system gets support hopefully more agents will be hired for watching over the public and the crime rate will fall steadily. The system isn't in place to take out violence completely in its first month, but hopefully as the system ages and the government sees where it can improve, the system will keep lowering the crime rates. Its all up to the people and how they react to these changes by the government. (NCSL)

This revamped background check system is great and all but is it truly going to work? People don't think so. Many people believe that the main source of guns for the people who shouldn't have them is theft. In other words, people who shouldn't have guns don't buy them from stores. They steal them. So, the background check is irrelevant for these thieves since they commit the crime of theft before even doing anything with the weapons. These weapons are finding their way to the black market where they are sold to the people who cannot be tracked by the system. In fact, according to the article by Frontline, "over-the-counter purchases are not the only means by which guns reach the illegal market from FFLs" and reveals that 23,775 guns have been reported lost, missing or stolen from FFLs since September 13, 1994" (Frontline). This shows that a lot of the guns that are circulating in the market, about 24,000 weapons, are in the market from being stolen or just lost. This is incredibly odd because it's a huge number of guns that are stolen, lost, and not able to be found or tracked. This is maybe the biggest thing that makes weapons fall in the wrong people's hands. 

Another situation that is leading to the wrong people getting their hands on guns is a "straw purchase." This is an illegal firearm purchase and it is a federal crime. It "occurs when someone who may not legally acquire a firearm, or who wants to do so anonymously, has a companion buy it on their behalf." (Frontline). These 'straw purchases' happen when two people are walking into a store and one selects the gun and the other provides the identification to purchase it. This situation makes the background check irrelevant because the person who buys the gun probably has no criminal history. So, this can never be tracked by the police and can never really stop the violence from happening. Buying a gun for someone who can't is a very dangerous thing to do because it can bring a felony conviction sentence of ten years in jail and a fine of up to $250.000. 

So, the "straw purchase" is a loop around the background check system that allows many criminals to get their hands on guns.  Mental illness that people believe is a major reason for the shootings is statistically ruled out. According to the PMC article, most shootings are actually not connected to mental illness. As reported, only 4% to 5% of shootings are related to mental illness. A lot of mentally ill patients are in hospitals, locked away from causing harm to the public (PMC). So, this disproves the claims made about mental illness creating a lot of problems in the gun violence area.  

One of the last areas that needs to be addressed about how this background check system isn't really going to lower any type of violence is the fact that most of the shootings are also caused by laws that are passed to protect people who are armed. Such laws include the "concealed carry" law and the "stand your ground" law. These two laws have led to many cases of shootings that could have been avoided with certain rules taken out of place. The "stand your ground" law states that if you feel threatened on your own private land, you have to right to take whatever action you want and you will not be punished since they are on your land without permission. Also, the "concealed carry" law allows people to just carry around a weapon without anyone knowing which can lead to certain shootings happening by mistake. 

A news article by USA Today talks about a child who gained access to his mom's gun in her purse while she wasn't paying attention and discharged it killing her. (USA Today) This could have all been avoided if the gun was holstered in the mom's waist area. Other cases with "stand your ground" law are just as crazy. According to Propublic, a case involving a 61-year-old man who thought two people were breaking into his neighbor's house pulled out his shotgun and shot them both. Those people were actually gardeners, cases like this could have been easily avoided but these two laws have allowed for certain violence to happen just based on some random circumstances. So, it's not the people behind the guns, it's actually the laws that are allowing them to use the guns. (Propublic)

Guns were created to protect us, not to hurt us. As stated in the Second Amendment, we have the right to bear arms, "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" (Bill of Rights Institute). They wanted us to have the power to protect ourselves from certain danger that comes in our way. But we have let our founding fathers down by allowing that to turn into what we have in today's world, a crime rate that is unbelievably high. And we cannot simply outlaw guns now, since it is the right for every person who is a citizen here to own a weapon. But, there needs to be a line drawn. There needs to be a limitation on that.  People who shouldn't have a firearm should not be able to have a firearm. They should lose their right since they are the ones who are destroying this beautiful country with the violence they are creating around this nation. Every state is having problems. It's not just one state. It's all the 50 states. It is sad on all levels that the United States is having issues with violence. We are supposed to be united, together, not fighting one another. We live under the same flag. We shouldn't be creating a country that feeds off the violent killing of one another. 

As we see, the violence that is happening around our great nation can be somewhat slowed down. President Obama believes that this new background check system will accomplish that. This new background check system can fix a lot of loopholes in the gun violence area. These loopholes are allowing the weapons to get into the hands of people who should never get them. The new background check system can change how gun violence is handled in today's world. A great quote explains perfectly what is happening in today's world: "A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." (Shane).  It says that it is not the weapon but it is the people who are handling it. This background check system would fix the violence problem by making sure that people who shouldn't have weapons will be denied the ability to purchase them. Our country is too great to have this issue, we must stop fighting one another and start working together to make this country great again.  So, I ask you: can we finally fight our lust for blood? 

