Gun control in the U. S. remains controversial for years, and while some advocate total gun control, others are trying to gain more gun-related liberties. All discussions on the issue are cyclic and are renewed only after another gun-involved incident. News coverage of the issue differs depending on the position of the writer, and how much attention was driven by the situation. Lack of public and political will along with powerful lobbying from the NRA could be regarded as reasons for ineffective gun control in the U.S.
According to Las Vegas shooting: Five reasons US gun control won’t happen by A. Zurcher (2017) (Zurcher, 2017), no sufficient changes in laws on gun regulation will be implemented due to the increased opposition of the National Rifle Association (NRA), for example, they have spent over “$50m on political advocacy” (Zurcher, 2017) and donated $30 million to Trump’s campaign. The article was mostly based on role of the NRA, and gun control was assessed from several points of view. The author concluded that gun control would hardly be implemented with the presence of such powerful lobbying.
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According to A perennial American question: why has gun control failed? by T. McCarthy (2017) (McCarthy, 2017), debates on the gun control issue could be easily solved if the public would have felt sure about it and demanded from the government adoption of the absolute gun control. The author reviewed the issue from different perspectives, analysed the role of NRA, the amount of guns, and historical aspect of owning a gun. It was concluded that US were historically filled with guns, and thus, gun control regulation would never occur, for example, paid Democrats lied about background checks for gun purchase, naming it a “national gun registry” (McCarthy, 2017).
These articles have different approach to representation of the issue, though both of them conclude the same idea. While Zurcher’s article focuses mainly on the role of the NRA in the issue, McCarthy provides broader analysis and a variety of opinions on the subject. Both articles support exclusive role of the NRA in prevention of establishment of gun control, but lack examples of NRA lobby. Zurcher could have made less emphasis on the NRA’s fault and perhaps suggest analysis of other aspects of the problem, for example, history, public opinion, or charts on donations to senators.
To conclude, both of the articles represented different but essential opinions on gun control. Zurcher’s investigation emphasized the role of NRA and thus, vision of the author could be regarded as one-sided, as no evaluation of any correlated reasons was conducted. McCarthy provided better explanation of major reasons why gun control in the U.S. would not be established in the nearest future. His reasoning is quite simple, yet powerful, and, unlike Zurcher, he did not focus on one aspect, but in lesser words offered a broad review of the problem. His arguments seem to be more convincing and could be easily comprehended by any reader. Both articles might be used for further research.
- McCarthy, T. (2017, Oct. 3). A perennial American question: why has gun control failed? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/
- Zurcher, A. (2017, Oct. 4). Las Vegas shooting: Five reasons US gun control won’t happen. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/
