Gun Control in America | Start Here
Al Jazeera English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rb5yPW_LtE

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

1:32 Most Americans agree on one thing — gun violence
1:36 is a problem. According to one survey it's a pretty huge majority
1:40 with only 6% who say it's not a problem at all.
1:44 The question of how to tackle gun violence is where there's debate
1:47 and at the heart of that debate is gun control and whether more laws are needed.
1:52 But before we get into that let's debunk the myth that gun control
1:56 is anything new. In the 1930s they banned machine guns in
2:22 response to gangs. In the late '60s after the assassination
2:28 of President JFK the Gun Control Act came in. It imposed
2:32 regulations on the firearms industry and came up with a list of people who
2:35 could be denied the sale of guns. And in the '90s President Clinton's Crime
2:40 Bill introduced a federal ban on assault weapons but that expired 10 years later.
2:48 And that goes back to the constitution. For Americans
2:52 being able to own a gun is a basic right up there with free speech.
2:57 The Second Amendment says "a well-regulated militia, being necessary
3:01 to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear
3:05 arms, shall not be infringed." So what does that mean? Well, for a couple
3:10 of hundred years the understanding focused on that mention of a militia.
3:14 It's really the idea that the states would serve as a check
3:17 against a possible tyrannical government. Makes sense seeing as it was written
3:21 after the War of Independence. And that idea still persists today but
3:26 in 2008 there was a landmark Supreme Court decision that focused on the
3:30 second half. It's known as the Heller case. The court
3:33 ruled that a ban on handguns in the district of Columbia was
3:37 unconstitutional and for the first time affirmed the
3:40 right for individuals to keep arms for self-defence
3:43 in the home. And that shift in thinking among
3:56 Americans started happening well before 2008.
4:29 The National Rifle Association —
4:32 the US's main gun rights advocacy group — has also played a big part in that.
4:36 In pushing the idea that guns are needed for self-defence.
5:10 We can't get away from the fact that this is all super political
5:13 and we see that when it comes to support for gun laws.
5:17 Overall more than half of Americans favour stricter laws
5:20 but when you break that down more than 80% of Democrats support more gun
5:24 control compared to just 20% of Republicans.
5:44 So what do US gun laws look like? Well, that depends on where you live.
5:49 There are federal laws that apply across the whole country that for
5:52 instance ban convicted felons, people with
5:55 mental illness or kids under 18 from buying guns.
5:59 But then there are state laws and each state has a lot of leeway to enforce
6:03 their own regulations and they differ pretty wildly.
6:16 In Massachusetts, a strongly Democratic state,
6:20 you need a police permit and a background check to buy a gun.
6:23 While Republican-controlled Texas recently passed a law allowing people to
6:27 carry concealed handguns without any permit.
6:41 So now we've got a Democrat in the White House and President Biden has declared
6:44 gun violence a public health epidemic. His plans to tackle it include more
6:49 money for community programmes to address some of the root causes of gun violence.
7:09 On the legal side Biden wants to toughen up gun laws
7:12 and make sure the ones that already exist are actually applied —
7:16 including zero tolerance for rogue gun dealers.
7:35 He also wants to tighten the rules on what are called ghost guns.
7:41 These are weapons sold in parts and without a serial number so they can't be
7:45 traced. Another big thing Biden wants to
8:04 do is bring back the ban on assault weapons.
8:07 Guns like the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. According to a Newsweek investigation
8:13 this type of gun was used in more than a quarter of the last
8:16 80 mass shootings. Like this year's attack in a supermarket in Boulder,
8:20 Colorado, the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016
8:24 and at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six teachers were
8:29 killed in 2012. But can he do it? As Democrats push for
8:33 more gun control there are plenty of voters
8:35 and politicians in Congress who say guns just aren't the problem.
9:06 Now even though we always hear about how America is so divided over guns
9:10 there's another way to look at it. Guns aren't going away — that's a
9:37 non-starter in the US. But if Americans can find that common
9:41 ground to look at policies they can agree on
9:44 maybe that's where there's a chance of saving lives.
9:51 If there's a news story or a topic you want to get your head around
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