er laws for gun control. Congress, however has done little to actupon the peoples requests. With handgun violence at such a high rate, most Americans are worried and wonderingwhat, if anything, is being done to control the sale of these wepons. The public is strongly in favorof gun control. Sixty eight percent favor banning cheap handguns, seventy two percent favorbanning semi-automatic assault weapons, seventy eight percent want laws relating to the sale offirearms to be far stricter, eighty percent favor handgun registration and ninety five percent agreewith a seven day waiting period for handgun purchases (Leonne 37). Many people are trying toget involved. The most productive are the peace groups, who come together in large numbers tofight this on-going problem. One of these groups is Peace Action of Washington. It is a statewide organization consisting of 16,000 members. They are devoted to lobbying to preventhandgun violence. It is a group based in Seattle and it has done great things for the communitylike organizing and leading a coalition that influenced the Seattle City Council to ban the sale offirearms at city facilities. Despite the efforts of the people and the peace groups, the biggestproblem for making handguns illegal is the National Rifle Association. (NRA). The NRA wasconstructed to protect second amendment rights. The right to bear arms. The NRA is more thanthree million members strong. These members fight to block new gun laws, and repeal existinggun laws. The basis of their argument being the second amendment. With an annual budget ofsixty million, the NRA has the money, the numbers, and the clout to influence and intimidate thecongress. (Long 71).It is clear, to stop handgun violence stricter laws must be placed on guns. In order fordrastic measures to be achieved, every one must get involved. There are still many obstacles toconquer, but anything is possible. The sad fact is that many people in Ameri...
