The Argument For Stricter Gun Control Laws Essay Example for Free

The Argument For Stricter Gun Control Laws Essay I am writing a persuasive argument in favor of stricter gun control laws. I am very passionate about this topic because the use of firearms in the wrong hands is a deadly prophecy. It can be in the form of children getting a hold of a gun and hurting themselves or others, an adult with violent propensities mishandling a weapon, or someone who wants the use of a firearm in aiding suicide. When one looks at the increased incident of injury to children, homicide, and suicide, it is clear there is a need for stricter gun control laws. This paper argues that firearms continue to play a dominant role in violence both criminal and accidental regardless of laws such as the five-day waiting period and the Brady Law. I will show how easier access to guns, rather than preventing crime, creates more of it through the use of examples and statistics Those whom are opposed to gun control laws do not like to admit there is a link between access to guns and violence. The NRA says guns dont kill people, people kill people. They will claim that the right to bear arms for se lf-defense and civil rights would be diminished. However, this view is only one sided and it fails to address the link between the ownership of guns and the violence that occurs because of it. Almost everyday we can open up a newspaper or turn on a national news broadcast on the television and discover a new case of someone being killed by the use of a gun. Perhaps it was a child whom had access to his/her parents gun they keep in the house for self defensive purposes, an adult whom was an innocent bystander during a workplace massacre or robbery, a shooting at a school by a disturbed kid, or a domestic dispute turned deadly. Unfortunately, it is rare that a day goes by that we do not hear about one of the above events. Whatever the case may be, it is apparent that too many people have access to firearms and that access must be restricted. The Brady Campaign is one that enforces gun control laws, elects pro gun control public officials, and informs the public about gun violence. It was enacted in 1994 and because of it, all 50 states must do background checks on anyone wishing to purchase a firearm. While this has helped quell some gun violence that may have occurred otherwise, there are still too many who are falling through the cracks. These background checks are targeting the wrong people and criminals are still able to obtain guns from illegal sources. Take a look at the Virginia Tech massacre last spring. This reopened the legislative debate over gun control that was never resolved from the Columbine high school shootings eight years earlier. Many wonder how Cho-Seung Hui was able to get his hands on powerful automatic weaponry that killed thirty two of his classmates. This proves that the background checks performed are insufficient and need to be more thorough. More than fifty survivors and family members of this tragedy signed a letter to Congress with one simple message- finish work on legislation that could prevent future tragedies. The notion of more complete background checks leads me to another issue that is the abolition of handguns. More handguns are used in criminal acts than any other type of firearm. The FBI reports that more than 60 percent of murders are caused by guns and handguns account for 70 percent of these. Lets look at some scenarios that stem from the lack of access to handguns: Sure, anyone with a penchant for killing could pull out a knife or a baseball bat but the victim has much better chance of survival. The likelihood of injury and not death are much greater as the victim may be able to get away. The next scenario are home burglaries. Most of these occur with the occupants are out of the house so the need for a gun inside the home is unnecessary. If there is a gun inside of the home, the perpetrator will confisca te it along with other valuables, thus placing it in the hands of criminal for future misuse. Approximately 40 percent of handguns used in crimes are stolen out of homes of law abiding citizens whom had guns for their own protection. If handgun manufacturers were stringently restricted and only allowed to sell to police, our environment would be much safer. Fewer criminals would have access to them if the sale of handguns to ordinary citizens were outlawed. They could not obtain them by way of stealing and their illegal underground network would be hampered. If this were to occur, those dangerous people would not have the opportunity to slip through the cracks and get a hold of a weapon. The end result would be fewer violent crimes and fewer injuries and/or deaths related to these crimes. Many states in the United States have right to carry laws that allow citizens to carry concealed handguns if they are qualified. Qualification includes a clean criminal history, age restrictions, and completing a firearms safety course. In 1986 only nine states had that law and as of 1998, 31 states have right-to-carry laws. Half of the citizens of the U.S. live in those states. This will engender only more violence as journalis t Philip Cook states if you introduce a gun into a violent encounter, it increases the chances that someone will die. In the end, the notion of violence in self-defense will only create more violence. It is for that reason that not only should handguns themselves be eradicated from the hands of the general public, but they should never be allowed to carry out in public. It is a fact that the Constitution guarantees us the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights 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. Our founding fathers who authored the Constitution were certainly aware of the British efforts to disarm the colonists and believed a militia was necessary to defend democracy. However, in the present day, owners of handguns are not members of a militia attempting to fight a tyrannical power or oppression. Any type of gun that can be concealed should be abolished from the hands of ordinary citizens and only placed in the hands of the men and women of our police force whom are trained professionals. This will de-emphasize the use of another slogan If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. It simply will not be the case as long as only those who are legitimate protectors of society are the only people who have access to them. WORKS CITED Agresti, James D. Gun Control. Just Facts Foundation. 10 June 1999. 20 October 2007. www.justfacts.com. Desuka, Nan. Why Handguns Must Be Outlawed.. Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Boston: Bedford, 1993. Cassidy, J. Warren. The Case For Firearms. Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Boston: Bedford, 1993. Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Families of Virginia Tech Victims and Survivors Call on U.S. Senate to Strengthen Brady Background Checks. 21 October 2007. www.handguncontrol.org

Shakespeares Hamlet - Regarding Gertrude Essay -- Essays on Shakespear

Regarding Hamlet’s Gertrude  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy Hamlet, the audience meets a queen who is a former and present queen. She was unhappy before – how does she feel now? Is she evil, guilty, motherly, lascivious? The multiple aspects of her personality deserve our attention.    Angela Pitt in â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies† comments that Shakespeare’s Gertrude in Hamlet is, first and foremost, a mother:    Gertrude evinces no such need to justify her actions and thereby does not betray any sense of guilt. She is concerned with her present good fortune, and neither lingers over the death of her first husband nor analyses her motives in taking another. . . .She seems a kindly, slow-witted, rather self-indulgent woman, in no way the emotional or intellectual equal of her son. . . . Certainly she is fond of Hamlet. Not only is she prepared to listen to him when he storms at her, proof that he is sufficiently close to her to have a right to make comments on   her personal life, but she is unfailingly concerned about him. (46-47)    Gunnar Bokland in â€Å"Hamlet† describes Gertrude’s moral descent during the course of Shakespeare’s Hamlet:    With Queen Gertrude and finally also Laertes deeply involved in a situation of increasing ugliness, it becomes clear that, although Claudius and those who associate with him are not the incarnations of evil that Hamlet sees in them, they are corrupt enough from any balanced point of view, a condition that is also intimated by the â€Å"heavy-headed revel† that distinguishes life at the Danish court. (123)    Gertrude’s â€Å"contamination† does indeed affect the hero. Courtney Lehmann and Lisa S. Starks in "Making Mother Matter: Repression... ...    Lehmann, Courtney and Lisa S. Starks. "Making Mother Matter: Repression, Revision, and the Stakes of 'Reading Psychoanalysis Into' Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet." Early Modern Literary Studies 6.1 (May, 2000): 2.1-24 <URL: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/06-1/lehmhaml.htm>.    Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.    Smith, Rebecca. â€Å"Gertrude: Scheming Adulteress or Loving Mother?† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of â€Å"Hamlet†: A User’s Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996.   

NoLag product

For the different budgets related to the NoLag product of JetSet Travel, Inc. (JTI), I would expect to see different items. Below are said budgets and items. But I would like to define what budget is first. Horngren, Datar and Foster (2002) defined budget as the â€Å"[quantitative] expression of a proposed plan of action by management for a specified period and is an aid to coordinating what needs to be done to implement that plan (p. 835). Sales budget. This is usually the staring point for budgeting. The budgeted sales for a future period determines the production and inventory levels which also determine the manufacturing costs of JTI as well as its nonmanufacturing costs for its NoLag product. Items seen in the sales budget are the budgeted selling price for the product, budgeted number of units to be sold, and of course, the budgeted total revenues fro the product. With respect to costs behavior, the items shown in the NoLag sales budget are all variable. That is, these items changes in total in proportion to the number of products to be sold. Purchase budget. This budget identifies the direct materials to be purchased which depends on the budgeted usage of direct materials. Items seen in this budget are the direct materials needed, and under each material the following are specified: Direct materials usage for the period, Target ending inventory for the direct material, Beginning inventory for the direct material, Cost per unit of each of the direct material requirement, and Budgeted direct materials purchases for the period The direct material cost, specifically the direct materials purchase cost is a variable cost. The amount changes relative to the number of direct materials budgeted. Operating expenses budget. This budget included the nonmanufacturing costs related to the NoLag product value chain. Included in this budget are research and development, marketing, distribution, customer-service, and administrative costs. The research and development costs’ behavior – fixed or variable – depends on how management allocates funds to it. If management decides that 10 percent of the total sales budget is to be allocated to research and development, then it is variable – it varies according to the sales budget. The rest of the items under the operating expenses budget exhibit the same characteristics. For example, marketing costs are usually budgeted as a percentage of the sales budget. Capital expenditures budget. This is composed of the investing requirements of JTI with regard to the manufacture of the NoLag product. The expenses here are fixed which includes budgeted purchase amount of new equipments. Cash budgets. The cash budget, according to Horngren, Datar and Foster (2002), â€Å"is a schedule of expected cash receipts and disbursements† (p. 197). Generally, the cash budget has several main sections. Beginning cash balance AND cash receipts. These will form part of the cash available for financing requirements of JTI. Cash receipts come from collections from customers and sales of the NoLag product. Cash disbursements are composed of direct materials purchases, direct labor and other wage and salary outlays, interest on long-term borrowing, income tax payments, and other costs and disbursements. Short-term financing requirements. JTI needs short-term financing requirements if its total cash receipts for the period are less than its total cash disbursements. Ending cash balance. Include considerations for the variable aspects of this product and its sales References Horngren, C. T., Datar, S. M. & Foster, G. (2002). Cost accounting: A managerial emphasis. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. APA 1   

How the Earl Warren Court Liberalized America Essay

The Warren Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States between 1953 and 1969, when Earl Warren served as Chief Justice. Warren led a liberal majority that used judicial power in dramatic fashion, to the consternation of conservative opponents. The Warren Court expanded civil rights, civil liberties, judicial power, and the federal power in dramatic ways. One way the Warren Court liberalized America, is through the court cases of Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Escobedo v. Illinois (1964), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), where these court cases helped define Due Process and the rights of defendants. Another way the Warren Court liberalized America, is through the cases of Tinker v. Des Moines ISD (1969), Engle v. Vitale (1962), and†¦show more content†¦The issue of Tinker v. Des Moines ISD was that students were to wear black arm bands to school in protest of the Vietnam War; however the school warned that anyone wearing the armbands would be would be suspended, but th e Tinker children wore their armbands to school (they were the only ones of the group to do so) and were suspended leading to Mr. and Mrs. Tinker filing a law suit claiming that the school violated the childrens right to freedom of speech and expression. The court ruled against the school district saying that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the school house gates. In doing so the court protected what has come to be known as symbolic speech. In the case of Engle v. Vitale, the Supreme Court ruled that prayers in schools were considered unconstitutional, leading to a ban of all prayers led by teachers in school, even if the prayer was considered voluntary, stating, in a way, that there was some sort of â€Å"separation of church and state† which is not true. Lastly, New York Times v. Sullivan focused more on the freedom of the press, ruling that â€Å"actual malice† must be proven to support a finding of libel against a public figure. Finally, the War ren Court liberalized America in a dramatic way, since that it focused more on the right to privacy, the incorporation of theShow MoreRelatedStrategic Human Resource Management View.Pdf Uploaded Successfully133347 Words   |  534 Pagesphotocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, must be arranged with the individual copyright holders noted. This special edition published in cooperation with Pearson Custom Publishing. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Please visit our web site at www.pearsoncustom.com ISBN 0–536–72690–6 BA 996748 PEARSON CUSTOM PUBLISHING 75 Arlington Street, Suite 300 Boston, MA 02116 A Pearson Education Company iii iv Table of Contents SECTION