How do we balance the Second Amendment right to bear arms with public safety concerns?
Each issue breaks into the specific questions Congress actually fights over. Read each position, then head to the interactive version of this issue to mark which reflects your view and build a message to your representatives.
The private-sale loophole lets millions of gun sales bypass the NICS background check system entirely. Closing it has broad public support and is a minimal infringement on law-abiding owners.
Extending background checks to all sales, including gun shows and private transfers, is a reasonable measure that most gun owners support in polling. Implementation should be efficient and not create a de facto registry.
Law-abiding citizens should not face more bureaucratic hurdles. The existing NICS system has serious failure modes — the 2015 Charleston shooter passed a check due to a processing error. Fix the system before expanding it.
Extreme Risk Protection Orders give courts a tool to temporarily remove firearms from individuals showing clear warning signs of violence — potentially preventing mass shootings and suicides.
Well-designed red flag laws with strong due process protections — notice, hearings, and a clear evidentiary standard — balance public safety with constitutional rights. Poorly designed ones do not.
Red flag laws can strip law-abiding citizens of constitutional rights without a criminal conviction, based on an allegation that can be motivated by personal conflict. Due process must come before deprivation of rights.
Semiautomatic rifles with military features and high-capacity magazines have no legitimate civilian hunting or self-defense purpose and have been the weapon of choice in mass shootings.
The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban had modest measurable effects; the evidence is mixed. Restrictions on magazine capacity may be more clearly effective than feature-based bans.
The AR-15 and similar rifles are the most popular rifle in America, owned by millions of law-abiding citizens. They are used in a tiny fraction of gun crimes. Banning them by cosmetic feature is not serious policy.
More guns in public spaces do not make those spaces safer. Permitless "constitutional carry" eliminates the training and vetting that ensure carriers are competent and law-abiding.
Shall-issue permitting with training requirements balances the right to carry with reasonable public safety standards. Reciprocity between states raises complex questions about varying standards.
The Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, not just to keep them at home. Law-abiding citizens should be able to defend themselves in public. Most constitutional carry states have seen no increase in violent crime.
The focus on mental health as the cause of gun violence is often used to deflect from gun regulation — most people with mental illness are not violent, and the U.S. has no monopoly on mental illness but does on gun violence.
Improving mental health care and ensuring mental health records are properly reported to NICS are both worth pursuing — but neither is a substitute for other gun safety measures.
The common thread in mass shootings is not the gun but the shooter — often a deeply troubled individual who fell through the cracks of a broken mental health system. Fix that system.