infringed." The only other country in the world that has a right-to-arms provision in its federal constitution is Mexico.

Individual-rights view

This opinion is based on the belief that the language of the Second Amendment refers specifically to a right ascribed to all Americans as individuals. Apart from a few absolutists, proponents of the individual-rights view generally believe that some restrictions on gun ownership are allowable, such as laws preventing convicted violent criminals and known terrorists from legally purchasing and carrying weapons in the United States

Collective-rights view

This view insists that the Bill of Rights offers no compelling evidence that an individual's right to own a gun is protected by the Constitution and that the Second Amendment applies only to the arming of militias, or "collections" of people involved in defending the country from outside insurgents.

Many collective-rights gun control advocates believe that owning a gun might be considered safe and acceptable under certain circumstances, such as shotguns or rifles used for regulated sporting events and licensed hunting.

Banning certain types of weapons

In September 1994, the Clinton administration passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. This federal law bans the manufacture of nineteen military-style assault weapons, copycat street models that mimic features of assault weapons, and certain high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold more than ten rounds. It also expands the federal death penalty to cover about sixty offenses, including terrorist homicides, murder of a federal law enforcement officer, large-scale drug trafficking, drive-by shootings resulting in death, and carjackings resulting in death. The law also prevents domestic abuse offenders and people under domestic abuse restraining orders from owning a gun, and it imposes greater restrictions on gun dealers and interstate firearms commerce. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was allowed to expire on September 13, 2004. Gun control advocates are working to re-introduce a bill that improves upon the original law.

Gun violence

Despite strong and passionate arguments on both sides of the issue of gun rights, almost everyone agrees that the use of guns in violent crime is a problem in society. The two sides differ, however, on how to solve the problem. Some say that if the right to own a gun is infringed and fewer people are able to own guns for their protection, the result will be greater crime and violence. Critics of this view agree that in order to limit gun violence and make society safer,

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