Gun violence is not a new issue, nor is gun control a new argument. The “war on guns” dates all the way back to the infancy of the United States of America; the right to bear arms was guaranteed in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, and has been seen, in the more than two centuries since, as a cornerstone of American liberty. However, in the last few years, repeated mass killings have placed the gun control debate at the eye of the American political storm. In an effort to balance beliefs from both ends of the political spectrum - that gun ownership needs to be protected, while restricted enough to keep guns out of the hands of those who may do deadly harm with them - has come a lack of serious, effective legislation on the matter. The Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act - seen at its enactment as a milestone in the gun control movement - has proven itself ineffective at preventing the type of mass shooting that is, unfortunately, all too common today. These killings, and the high rates of gun violence overall, challenge the core values of social work practice, and the short- and long-term economic impact of this violence is, at best, counter-productive. Based on the research outlined in this document, it is necessary as social workers to create a culture of safety, and as a country to enact sensible gun …show more content…
Const. Amend. II). Rostron (2012) summarized the long and ongoing interpretation of the Second Amendment, saying that “history often will not provide clear answers to modern Second Amendment questions, but courts are increasingly making efforts to glean whatever insight may be drawn from historical reflection” (p. 821). And, as Blau and Abramovitz (2014) point out, it is important for us as social workers to use history as context for our