Comparative Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Comparative Law - Essay ExamplePolitical arguments about gun rights fall into devil basic categories, first, does the government have the authority to regulate guns, and second, if it does, is it effective public policy to regulate guns? (Spitzer, 1995). Gun fence in refers to a continuing political and tender debate concerning both the constraint and accessibility of firearms within the United States. It has been among the most controversial and intractable issues inAmerican politics. The debate has been distinguished by an impasse between an individual right to bear arms based on thesecond amendmentand the accountability of government to avert crime, preserve order and protect the public assistance of its residents. The right to own a gun and defend oneself is considered by some as a central tenet of theAmerican identity (Spitzer, 1995). The two primaeval state court cases,BlissandBuzzard, set the debate in interpreting the Second Amendment, i.e. whether it protected an Indi vidual make up or a Collective Right and occupied the American legal experts thinking for years to come .A debate about how to interpret the Second Amendment evolved through the decades and remained unresolved until the 2008District of Columbia v. monsterU.S. Supreme Court decision (Cornell , 2006). ... Gun rights groups maintain that bans on the sale of certain types of weapons have not proved effective in reducing lurid crime, and that proposals for stricter background checks at gun shows are designed to eliminate gun shows themselves. Some gun manufacturers have volunteered support for safety locks, but the NRA has criticized safety locks for placing an excessive burden on gun manufacturers without a proven benefit to the public (Crothers, 2003). The first category, collectively known as rights-based arguments, consist of Second Amendment arguments, state genius arguments, right of self-defense arguments, and security against tyranny and invasion arguments. Public policy arg uments, the second category of arguments, revolve around the importance of a militia, the reduction of gun violence and firearm deaths, and also can include arguments regarding security against foreign invasions. On June 26, 2008, inDistrict of Columbia v. Heller,the United States Supreme Court affirmed, by a 5-4 vote, the decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. This decision struck down the D.C. gun law. It also clarifies the scope of theSecond Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating that it stipulates an individualrightirrespective of membership in a militia. However, the court made it clear that like other rights, the right to bear arms is not without limitations, leaving open the search of governmental regulation. The decision declined to rule on theincorporationof the Second Amendment, leaving its applicability to the states unsettled While the status of the Second Amendment within the twentieth-century incorporation debate is a matter of importance for the many challenges to state gun control laws, it is an issue that we need not