Gun rights

Gun rights include the right to keep and bear arms, to use firearms in self-defense, and to produce and sell firearms and ammunition.

In many jurisdictions, felons automatically lose certain rights, including gun rights. Those rights may be restored automatically or by petition.^[1]

Aspects

Arguments made in favour of gun rights include:^[2]

• Constitutional or fundamental right to gun ownership
• Need for self-defense
• Lack of correlation between gun ownership and crime
• Shooting sports and other recreational uses

Adam Winkler and Robert Spitzer say that gun rights are compatible with gun control.^{[3] [4]}

Advocates

Gun rights advocates seek to protect and enhance the right to keep and bear arms. They oppose gun control legislation that places limits on private ownership or use of firearms.

Proponents in the United States support the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.^[5] Prominent advocates of gun rights in the US include the National Rifle Association (NRA). Gun rights advocacy groups spent $6,129,911 on lobbying in 2012 in the US, the largest expenditures coming from the NRA, the Gun Owners of America, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Safari Club International.^[6] Some U.S. gun rights groups disagree with one another on the best approach to furthering their goals. For example, the Gun Owners of America, the National Association for Gun Rights, and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership have criticized the NRA.^[7][8]

Gun rights groups on other countries also lobby about firearms-related measures, including shooting sports and hunting controversies. Notable advocacy groups include PROGUN (Philippines), Sportsman's Association, British Association for Shooting and Conservation, Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain, British Association for Shooting and Conservation, and National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom (United Kingdom), Gun Owners of South Africa (South Africa), Forum Waffenrecht (Germany), National Arms Association of Spain (Spain), ProTell (Switzerland), Dominion of Canada Rifle Association and National Firearms Association (Canada), Sporting Shooters Association of Australia and Shooters and Fishers Party (Australia), and Viva Brazil Movement (Brazil).

The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights is a U.S.-based coalition of gun rights advocacy groups. Some gun rights advocacy groups outside the United States have received support from the U.S. NRA.^[9]

Advocates of gun rights have addressed relevant issues, including:

• Requirements that applicants show good cause in order to receive permits to carry guns in public^[10]
• Incorporation of US federal gun rights to states^[11]
• Inclusion of Second Amendment language in state constitutions^[12]
• Limits on magazine capacity^[13]
• Local limits on semi-automatic rifles^[14]

In addition to lobbying, gun rights advocacy groups also pursue their agenda though litigation.^[15] They also attack gun control advocates, using epithets such as "gun grabbers",^[16] and argue that murders and suicides committed with firearms could have been committed with other weapons instead^[17] Gun rights advocates are said to have a greater "intensity of preference" and better financing than gun control advocates.^[18]

Further reading

• McClurg, Andrew J., David B. Kopel, Brannon Denning Gun Control and Gun Rights: A Reader and Guide NYU Press, 2002

External links

• Gun Rights vs. Gun Control Pew Research Center

References