Gun control

Article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-18-state-gun-laws_N.htm

With so many campus shootings occurring throughout the United States, the federal government is taking steps to prevent it. The FBI currently keeps a database called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which all gun dealers must check before selling a firearm. This database keeps records of people who are not allowed to buy firearms, including criminals and the mentally ill. The problem is that most of the states are not doing their part to contribute to the database, which is a serious problem since most of the information in the database comes from state court systems. The federal government is not allowed to force states to submit records, so they must take other measures. President Bush signed a new law on Jan. 8 that will give grants to states that agree to submit names of their mentally ill residents to the NICS. States that don't comply may actually lose money used for fighting crime.

I have mixed feelings on this. Seung Hui Cho, the shooter in the Virginia Tech massacre, was declared to be dangerously mentally ill by the court, yet his record never made it from the state to the federal database. The shooting may have never happened had he not been able to purchase the firearms. But then there's the point that someone who really want to murder will find a way to do it, regardless of the law. Had Cho's record been included in the database and the dealer did not sell him the firearms, he may have acquired a gun illegally instead, or taken one from a relative.

People commit murders, weapons are only a means of doing it. Even with states contributing to the database, it more than likely won't help much with preventing crime, because criminals with the intent to murder will simply acquire guns by other means. The government needs to focus more on hunting down criminals and punishing them and less on preventative measures that don't really prevent much.