more gun control should occur

Pro stated: why isn't meaningful legislation already passed? most people on news shows seems to offer the same ideas, no guns for mentally ill and criminals, background checks on all guns, and assault rifle, automatics type bans. Rebuttal: The current administration's catch phrase (“meaningful legislation”) is simply a generic “pathos” (emotional) appeal, which exploits voters who are instinctively reactionary, rather than rationally critical.To counter this pathos appeal, I will utilize a “logos” approach. After all, an emotional argument is best countered by a rational argument. Premise 1: Meaningful legislation already exists. Article 18 , section 922 of the Federal Firearms law prohibits Felons, Drug users, non-citizens, subjects under court restraint, persons with assault convictions, fugitives, dishonorably discharged service-members and minors (article VII) from owning or coming into possession of a firearm. [2] This is a blanketed federal law, applicable to all states. In addition to Federal guidelines, each state has supplemental gun laws. Connecticut (Sandy Hook) has a law in place to prevent mentally ill persons from acquiring a firearm. Connecticut State Law 53a, article 217c prohibits a classified mental patient in custody of a state appointed guardian to purchase a weapon. [3] Adam Lanza actually attempted to buy a gun, and the laws in place prevented him from obtaining it. Current gun laws work if they are enforced. Sandy Hook cannot be blamed on an absence of gun regulation. It must be blamed on the presence of malicious, criminal intent. The law already prohibited his actions. In fact, Adam Lanza broke at least eight gun-laws before he even entered the school. --------------------- Pro establish: background checks. 74% of NRA members think all guns should have checks. on the point about background checks, 40% of guns sold in the country \are without checks, through gun auctions etc. Rebuttal: Background checks are already in place. The Brady Handgun violence act prevented 190 million weapon sales between 1994 and 2009. [4] That's approximately 12.6 million gun sales annually. By any measure, a hugely successful law. Connecticut has some of the toughest gun laws in the US, being one of only seven states that require background check in all gun sales, including private, gun-show and auction sales. Clearly, an Executive mandate to make this common place would have little effect on gun violence, because the Sandy Hook shooting occurred despite the rigid Connecticut gun law. Premise 2: Background checks are already sufficient. According to the National Institute of Justice, only 2% of gun related deaths occur from weapons purchased at gun-shows.The source does not list how many of those guns where stolen from the owner or if the gun related death was criminal (or self-defense). [5] Why is my opponent so focused on the 2%, while the 98% run a muck? --------------------- Pro said: there's no reason we can't put guns in the hands of the right people, while at the same time taking steps to remove them from the wrong hands. it's worth a shot. Rebuttal: Straw man argument. Current gun laws are already removing weapons from the wrong hands, while guaranteeing the 2nd amendment to law abiding citizens. As stated above, current background checks prevent 12.6 million illegal gun sales annually. --------------------- Pro stated: -it's nearly unanimous that certain mentally ill people shouldn't have guns. the NRA says we should have better mental health institutions, but doesn't add how restricting guns to certain mentally ill wouldn't help, too. Rebuttal: Certified Mental illness already prevents gun ownership. The problem is diagnosis. Most psychotics aren't diagnosed until they have psychotic breaks. Not one incident (as far as I have found) lists a shooter who was a ward of the state due to mental illness. At some point we need to stop blaming gun laws and start looking at the people who know the killer. More often than not, there are warning signs, if not flagrant threats. Premise 3: The citizen has a duty to report suspicious behavior. Yet more often than not, suspicious behavior is ignored, rather than confronted. Seung-Hui Cho was in psychiatric care for good reason, but a failure to diagnose resulted his release from state custody to an “outpatient” treatment, which allowed him to purchase weapons. Had the mental health professionals taken his condition more seriously, the shooting would have been prevented. In fact, had the two women, whom he stalked, pressed charges against him, the shooting would have been prevented. Had the classmates reported his threatening social-media profile to the school, in which he posed with loaded weapons, the shooting could have been prevented. I challenge my opponent to explain how the Virginia tech massacre was a failure of gun laws, rather than a failure of the people around him to recognize his capacity for violence. --------------------- Pro established -most people think assault rifles should be banned. there's far fetched theories that hitler will come back and wreck havoc, exagerrating for effect... Rebuttal: Most people don't know what an assault weapon is. Premise 4 The American population is mostly composed of low-information voters.70% of people questioned in a poll believe an assault weapon is a gun that keeps firing as long as the trigger is held down. [6] --------------------- Pro stated -while no one thinks we should ban all guns, there's something to be said about it. at least in so far as showing that it's posible to reduce gun violence here. Rebuttal: There is something to be said about banning all guns. “Terrible idea”. How safe should we feel with criminals knowing that we are not armed? Consider this single mother who saved her own life, and the life of her infant, by shooting the intruder. [6] --------------------- Pro established - japan is the best, and there's many shades in between. would you give up your right to a gun if you knew it'd overwhelmingly cut down on murders etc? in japan last year, with a ban on all guns, they only had eleven gun deaths. Rebuttal: Japan's homicide rate is a cultural phenomenon. Consider the quote: “Japan’s crime rates have always been ridiculously low, for reasons that have nothing to do with the possession of guns. The issues are cultural. And they can only be replicated in the United States by making the country more Japanese, in ways that liberals would positively hate, rather than by banning guns.” [8] --------------------- Pro remarked - in fact, most gun situations don't infolve self defense. Rebuttal: Correct. Most gun crimes are crimes of opportunity. Very few criminals fight fair. They us the gun to gain an advantage over the victim. There is only one cure for this: Arm the victim with a gun. If you remove the ability of the victim to arm themselves, you've removed the ability of the victim to protect themselves from criminals who use any means of opportunity to prey on their target. To correct you premise:” In fact, most gun situations involve victims that didn't have a gun to defend themselves with.” --------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org... [1] http://www.justice.gov... [2] http://www.ncsl.org... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] http://www.cato.org... [5] http://www.debatepolitics.com... [6] http://abcnews.go.com... [7] http://frontpagemag.com... [8]