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Taylor Payne
ENG 101
Professor Bolton
November 17, 2014
Homemade Assault Rifles
Over 900 people have been killed, and many more injured, in mass shootings in
the past seven years (USATODAY). It seems as though mass shootings are on the rise in
the last decade or so, and this would entice anyone to want stronger gun laws or even a
gun ban altogether. Although there are very strict gun laws, that have become even
stricter, in place there are some loopholes around them. Guns, especially assault rifles,
have become very accessible to basically anyone that wants one. Anybody can build or
buy an assault rifle with the right set of tools, the right amount of money and the knowhow. I have recently been getting more and more into guns than I already had been. I
started building guns in my free time without actually knowing all of the legalities of it,
which got me thinking about the gun control debate and my heritage. Since I have been
around guns my whole life, I never really understood the whole controversy surrounding
gun ownership. I feel that there should be no more additions to the gun laws, even with
the loopholes, or a gun ban.
There have been many public mass shootings in recent years and it is very scary
to think that it could happen to any of us at any time. Bill Durston states the scary facts in
Gun Violence in the United States Is an Epidemic, Every year, approximately 30,000
U.S. civilians are killed by guns. The number of U.S. civilians killed annually by guns is
ten times the number of people killed in the September 11 [2001] terrorist attacks. More

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U.S. civilians are killed by guns every two years than the total number of U.S. soldiers
killed in the entire 11 year Vietnam War. (Durston 25). I could see where making the
gun laws even more strict than they already are may seem to be the solution to this scary
and threatening problem. One way the gun laws could be stricter to help keep people
safe, is to try and stop the people building unregistered assault rifles in their homes,
behind closed doors. Legislation could help prevent this by banning the sale of
unfinished, stripped receivers and banning the sale of AK receiver flats. Banning both of
these items from sale, especially from the internet, would put a huge damper on the sale
and building of unregistered weapons. This would help prevent the building of
unregistered weapons because the receiver is what houses everything that fires the gun
like the trigger assembly, the magazine and the bolt carrier. An AK receiver flat is the
cutout of a receiver for a popular assault rifle and with a little bending and welding an
unregistered AK47 can be built in under an hour. I know this because I have put a few
together for personal use on the range. The receiver is important and should be heavily
controlled because it is basically the gun, without it everything would just be random
pieces of metal. Another good way to control guns would be to put a ban on high capacity
magazines. This is a big issue with gun control legislature right now because if you get
rid of high capacity magazines, the attacker in any future mass shootings would have to
reload more often. This would make the attacker more vulnerable to be taken down or
taken into custody. Another obvious reason why it might seem to be a good idea to get a
tighter hold on gun control, is because if guns are the weapon of choice, it would make
sense that taking guns out of the picture and getting rid of them all except for law
enforcement and military, of course, would reduce the number of shootings. No more

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guns, no more bad guys with guns, and in turn no more innocent people killed by the bad
guys with guns. Although this seems good in theory it would just make everyone
defenseless. Bad guys can get guns from anywhere, whether it is a stolen gun, black
market gun, a pawn shop gun, or a private collectors private sale gun. All of these are
loopholes in the system to where anyone can get a gun. There are the obvious criminal
ways of attaining a gun, but what most people dont know is that the secondary market is
open and completely legal, as stated in the Gun Control in the United States: a Reference
Handbook That a person prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm can easily
do so by turning to the secondary market There are currently no federal enforcement
mechanisms to govern the secondary market (Carter 85). The tighter the gun control
laws the stronger the criminals.
Gun control legislature does not need to be any stricter than it already is. For the
most part, it does a good job of keeping guns out of the hands of people who ultimately
should not have a gun such as the mentally ill, and even some people that would cause no
trouble with a gun. There are the dirty deals that could be handled and watched over a
little closer by ATF, which would cause no threat to the legal gun owner. The only thing
that would come with stricter gun control overall, is more problems, more angry people,
and ultimately more crime. Also, gun control legislature cannot enact a gun ban because
it is directly against our constitutional rights, it is our right to bear arms as stated in the
second amendment of the Constitution 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. (U.S. Constitution). I believe the forefathers wanted us to be able to protect
ourselves and secure a free state, I think they wanted us to be able to ensure that this

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country would not be taken or overrun by anybody whether they were foreign or
domestic. The forefathers thought that we, the people, should be able to form a militia to
keep ourselves safe, and if our guns are banned and taken away then we are defenseless
sheep to our government. The Constitution is what our countrys government was built
upon. Our forefathers clearly stated that our right, the peoples right, to keep and bear
arms shall not be infringed. Since our country is built upon the Constitution and the
forefathers beliefs, then the government now cannot go against our rights and ban or
take away our guns, plain and simple.
Guns shouldnt be banned because of mass shootings and murders, because it is
all about the person behind the gun, what they have been through and what is going on
inside their heads. Unstable individuals committed a majority of the most renowned
shootings, Brad Knickerbocker quotes a statement by Gallup analyst Lydia Saad in the
article US Gun Massacres Mount Up, but No More Gun Control. Why? "While guns are
a common denominator in the high-profile mass shootings that have shaken the nation in
recent years, another has been the mentally unstable individuals committing the crimes,"
Ms. Saad writes. "The Washington Navy Yard case shares this element with some of the
most familiar massacres of recent decades, including those occurring in Newtown, Conn.;
Aurora, Colo.; Oak Creek, Wisc.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Littleton, Colo., as well as at
Virginia Tech." (Knickerbocker, paragraph 19). If these peoples parents or peers had
noticed the red flags of mental instability, the shootings could have been stopped. Also,
in some of the shootings the guns were not bought by the shooters themselves but were
stolen from their households. If the parents or gun owners had just kept the weapons in a
disclosed or secure location, then access to them would not have been so easy. It seems as

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though more of the shootings could have been prevented my peoples actions, instead of
jumping right to gun control. The blame could be pointed at some of the people close to
the shooters. Another example of what could prevent the shootings other than gun control
is the prevention of school bullying. In Katherine S. Newmans book, Rampage: The
Social Roots of School Shootings, she gives three examples of students who were pushed
to the breaking point by their peers and led them to retaliate in the worst way possible, by
terrorizing their schools. The conclusion stated in her book is as follows, The answers
are embedded in two places: the psychological troubles that were brewing on the inside
and the sociological bruises that were collecting as the boys engaged with peer groups,
schools, and neighborhoods. The relation- ship between these psychological and
sociological factors is a combustible one (Newman 22). She later explains how the
social stresses and bullying had pushed these kids to start shooting from guns they had
taken from family and friends. So, the guns did not cause all of theses problems, but the
unwatchful eye on these teens played a larger role.

Gun control does not and cannot be tightened, nor does this country need a
weapons ban on guns. Although guns are used to commit murders and crimes everyday,
they are not at fault, obviously. There are many other ways to prevent these attacks and
heinous crimes without taking away the liberties of innocent people and collectors, like
me. Although I do agree with some gun control, to a very small extent, it would not be
very helpful. Overall, if the time were to come I would rather have a gun and not need it,
than to be unarmed and helpless.

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Works Cited

USATODAY. "Mass Shootings Toll Exceeds 900 in past Seven Years." USA Today.
Gannett, 02 Dec. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
Durston, Bill. Gun Violence in the United States Is an Epidemic Guns and Violence.
Ed. Miller, Debra A. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2009. 24-28. Print.

Carter, Gregg Lee. Gun Control in the United States: A Reference Handbook. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006. Print.

U.S. Constitution. Art./Amend. II

Knickerbocker, Brad. "US Gun Massacres Mount Up, but No More Gun Control. Why?."
Christian Science Monitor. 22 Sep. 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 18
Nov. 2014.
Newman, Katherine S. Rampage : The Social Roots Of School Shootings. [N.p.]: Basic
Books, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 18 Nov. 2014.