Gun Control

General Purpose: To persuade

Specific Purpose: To persuade the class that current gun control laws are enough

Thesis: Guns have become a common part of the American lifestyle.

I. Introduction

A. Imagine someone breaking into your home and you have no means by which to protect yourself. That is a very scary situation that I hope none of you have to face.

B. Certain people are trying to enact legislation that would essentially take the guns out of homeowners’ hands.

C. As an American citizen, I practice my right to possess a firearm.

D. Guns have been, and always will be a common part of the American lifestyle.

E. I would like to cover three areas: Our rights as Americans to own firearms, the sufficiency of current gun control legislation, and enforcement of the current laws rather than creating new legislation.

II. Body

A. As Americans, we are entitled to certain rights granted to us by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. One such document is the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states “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.” To further support this right, Attorney General John Ashcroft, in Supreme Court filings from 2002, wrote “the Second Amendment more broadly protects the rights of individuals…to possess and bear their own firearms.”

B. I would like to show how current legislation is stringent enough. In November 1993, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was enacted. This Act requires a waiting period as well as a background check system to ensure against the possession of guns by criminals. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, went into effect as a result of the Brady Act. The NICS is a national system that checks available records in the National Crime Information Center, Interstate Identification Index, and the NICS Index to determine if prospective purchasers are disqualified from receiving firearms. Some of the many reasons for disqualification are as follows:

1) Persons who are aliens and are illegally or unlawfully in the United States

2) Persons who have been adjudicated as a mental defective or have been committed to a mental institution

3) Persons who have been discharged from the armed forces under dishonorable discharge conditions

4) Persons who have been convicted of a felony

C. We must enforce current laws more instead of coming up with new legislation. Since the NICS began on