Gun Control and Gun Rights | The Latest News on Gun Control

Gun Control And Gun Rights

The Second Amendment to the Constitution, which concerns the right to bear arms, is always a hot-button issue,...READ MORE
The Second Amendment to the Constitution, which concerns the right to bear arms, is always a hot-button issue, especially during election season. Gun rights and gun control groups alike have been lobbying Congress for decades to craft legislation in their respective favors. Twice in the past two years the gun issue has reached the nation’s highest court. In the 2008 Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller the court ruled that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to own a gun for personal use. But the 5-4 decision only applied to federal laws and failed to address local and state laws. Thus, in July 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that the federal right to bear arms also applies at the state and local level. The ruling lifted a nearly 30-year-old Chicago gun ban. The National Rifle Association called the ruling a landmark, but the decision did not specify what kind of gun laws can be applied to the Second Amendment. “The real challenge is going to be getting law-abiding citizens access to it,” said NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre after the ruling. Both gun rights and gun control groups will likely continue to lobby Congress on this issue to either blunt or sharpen the ruling.
J. Scott Applewhite

Politics

Senate Beats Shutdown Deadline

The Senate passed a $460 billion package of six bills to avert a partial government shutdown that was scheduled to start at midnight.

Cecelia Smith-SchoenwalderMarch 8, 2024

The Latest

Top Gun Control and Gun Rights Cartoons

Surviving a Shooting Still Has Costs

A new study finds that young people who have been injured by firearms are more prone to psychiatric diagnoses and developing a substance use disorder than kids who have not been shot – and their families also suffer long-term ill effects.

KFF Health NewsNov. 6, 2023

Mass Killings in America, by State

A mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, is among the latest of nearly 570 mass killings in the U.S. since 2006, amounting to close to 3,000 lives lost.

Christopher WolfOct. 26, 2023

Grappling With Endemic Gun Violence

Phillips County, Arkansas, has a harrowing history of racism, and one of the country’s highest per capita rates of gun homicides.

KFF Health NewsOct. 25, 2023

Gentrification and Gun Violence

Disruption and displacement may fuel increased firearm injuries in neighborhoods experiencing gentrification, according to a new analysis.

Steven Ross JohnsonSept. 22, 2023

One Year From Uvalde

President Joe Biden, one year since the deadly school shooting, again called for gun safety laws to prevent the profound pain of losing children to gunmen with assault weapons.

Susan MilliganMay 24, 2023

Study: Laws Alone Won’t Stop Gun Deaths

An analysis of gun deaths among youth indicates laws can tamp down fatalities but won’t get to the root of the problem.

Steven Ross JohnsonMay 24, 2023

High Court Lets Illinois Gun Ban Stand

The brief, unsigned order issued Wednesday keeps in place an Illinois ban on the sale of semi-automatic rifles enacted after a mass shooting last year.

Claire HansenMay 17, 2023

Judge OKs Gun Sales to Young Adults

The ruling comes amid an ongoing debate over gun laws that has resurged in the wake of recent mass shootings.

Claire HansenMay 11, 2023