Let’s enjoy English 21st

【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《A student in high school from Japan was murdered》

…so it didn’t have any news value.

The accident happened at the city of Baton Rouge which is the state capital in Louisiana. Its population is two hundred twenty thousand, so it’s next to New Orleans. It doesn’t seem to be a big city for us the Japanese, but the number of the murder case was 59 in the year.

It was such a big news in Japan that it was also treated wildly at the local place in America, being in uproar in the whole Japan by murder case. It was reported to Americas as the news.

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

The student in high school went to America as international student of AFS from Japan August in that year, doing a homestay in the house of the professor at the state university of Louisiana and went to high school at the local place in America then.

『What is the AFS?』

It’s the abbreviation of American field service. It’s a civilian international exchange organization of which main activity is exchanging international students. Its headquarters is in New York, and its incorporated foundation is in New York. The student in high school who were…

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【America is an nation of liberty having a gun】

The student in high school who were sent to America are over ten thousand in total at present.

『Its responsibility was recognized at the civil trial』

The defendant was innocent at the criminal trial but the parents of the student in high school from Japan filed the civil lawsuit seeking for the compensation. The fault on the defendant was recognized at the trial, ordering to pay seventy million yen to the parents in 1996, and the judgement has been settled.

《Though the trial was held…》

Without being arrested, the defendant who shot at the…

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【America is an nation of liberty having a gun】

《Though the trial was held…》

Without being attested, the defendant who shot at the student was interrogated by the police and after that he was allowed to go home on the dat day.

It is said the police in America didn’t try to treat it as a case from the first time. When comparing it to the bodily injury resulting in death which means a murder case, it’s a petty crime, and when doing with an involuntary manslaughter, it’s a serious crime, so the crime on the defendant was indicted as the crime of the middle between them.

The trial of twelve …

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【America is an nation of liberty having a gun】

《Though the trial was held…》

The trial made up with twelve juries was held, but the verdict was innocent unanimously.

The author said he was going to express on the judicial system in America in the next chapter.

Lots of the Japanese were shocked at the result, for the complete innocent student was murdered in the situation of meaning that don’t waste of its breath, the defendant was innocent. The shock spread over lots of the Japanese then.

Each state in America is as if it were other nation, so each of them has an original laws.

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【America is an nation of liberty having a gun】

《Though the trial was held…》

As to the criminal law in the state of Louisiana, if a stranger trespasses to the house, killing it is justified. It means if someone invaded the house, it’s all right even if firing at it, so the defendant was innocent with the stipulation.

As the prosecution doesn’t have the right to appeal in the penal code in Louisiana, the innocence on the defendant was made sure. The lawyer in the side of the defendant said with the regard to the result of the verdict, there has been the basic right of defending itself by…

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【America is an nation of liberty having a gun】

…there has been the basic right of defending itself with a gun is guaranteed in America. There is a gun at home in America, and when a suspicious person appears it’s all right even if shooting at it suddenly, and even if it’s dead, without doing on purpose, it’s not be charged with a crime. It’s the aspect of one more of America.

Why is the America of the society in which the gun is used by all of the people? We the Japanese couldn’t understand at all. The way of thinking spread over in the whole Japan then. Why is the society in America?

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【America is an nation of liberty having a gun】

《Shooting incidents one after another in school》

How abnormal the society of the gun in America is! It has been paid attention whenever the shooting incident broke out in school.

Two men in black trench coat and wearing black ski cap broke in public school at small town in the state of Colorado April in 1999 and shooting automatic rifle at random, and twelve students and a teacher were shot to death, after that, two of the men were killed themselves by the gun.

The small town was a residential area in the suburb of the Denver which is the…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Shooting incident one after another in school》

…Denver is the state capital in Colorado. Almost all of the students in school were the children of the home of the Caucasian in the middle class.

Two of the culprits were current students in school, and worshiped Hitler and the day the incident broke out was the birthday of Hitler. Why did they cause the incident? No one knew it in detail, for they were dead.

When one of the girl who were murdered was at the library, the other who was near her was saved testified like the next.

I couldn’t see…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Shooting incident one after another in school》

Though being unable to see them approaching her, I could recognize her voice. I could listen to her each word clearly, one by one as if they had talked next to me. One of them asked her whether or not she believed in the God, but she was not sure how to answer for a second and held her tongue but responded yes. She must have terrified, but her voice was unfaltering, resounded clearly. Then they asked why, but she didn’t have the chance of answering, for they shot at her at once.

Immediate before…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Shooting incident one after another in school》

Immediate before being murdered, saying believing in the God made her be treated as martyr from the mass media in America, but the problem is ordinary school in suburb changes into a battlefield easily. It’s the reality in America.

There is usually school installing metal detector at the entrance of the school building at the city in America, for students who come to school with the gun continue to occur.

It is said that the students who come to school with the gun and are expelled from school …

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

It is said the students who come to school with a gun and are expelled from school reaches eighty eight a week in average.

It is said it has been shown that brining in school with a gun is within five years in prison at the main gate of public junior high school or high school in the local area where the international student from Japan was murdered. Going everywhere with the gun is natural for the students in junior high school and high school in America, so they have to show like that.

《America where the crime by the gun occurs frequently》

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《America where the crime with the gun occurs frequently》

The serial sniper attacks at random broke out at Washington which is the capital in America October in 2002. A man who walked on the road, a woman who was at the park of the shopping mall, and a school children who went to school. The people who had nothing to do with each other were sniped one after another from long distance.

Aiming at a moving shadow of person from the long distance and killing it with one shot. Its skill was the first rate. No one know the place form where the…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《America where the crime with the gun occurs frequently》

No one knew the place from where the bullet aimed at. The people were so frightened that the shadow of person disappeared from the park of the shopping mall or the gas station where the incident broke out.

Eventually nine of people were dead and four of them were injured in month, a former soldier and his son in law were arrested as suspects. The former one joined in the army in the Gulf War in 1991 and was awarded a medal. He was from the place where the international student from Japan…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《America where a crime with the gun occurs frequently》

He was from the place where the international student from Japan was murdered.

The number of the gun in America reaches some two hundred twenty million. It means a single person has a single gun in average from a new born baby to the elderly. Everyone can buy the gun at a supermarket. To my surprise, It’s not abnormal at all.

As lots of people carry the gun, a tiff frequently developed a shooting incident easily, and it broke out one after another at the expressway in South California…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《America is where a crime with a gun frequently occurs》

…and it broke out one after another at the expressway in South California from March to April in 2005. Five of people were shot with the gun at different places on different days, and four of them were dead in total.

The police assumed each of them are different cases altogether, the trouble on the automobile over cutting in line caused the fire with the gun. The trouble on the automobile causes just a shouting match in Japan, but it develops into the shooting incident easily in America.

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《America where a crime with the gun occurs frequently》

The number of the atrocious crimes like a murder case or robbery with the use of the gun reached some three hundred forty thousand, according to the data in 2003 by the FBI, and the murder cases were eleven thousand. More than ten thousand of people are murdered with the gun every year in the society, thirty of them are killed with the gun every day in the nation. It’s the America.

On the other hand, as to the crime with the use of the gun in Japan, it’s one hundred twenty three arresting…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《America where a crime with the gun occurs frequently》

…it’s one hundred twenty three arresting by the police in 2002, and the victim by the murder case is no more than forty two. The murder case with the use of the gun stays in double digits both in England and Canada. As to the number of the murder case with the use of the gun, it’s in different class between America and other nations. The victims with the gun aren’t limited to the crime. Parents store the gun at home, and their children took them out and when played with the gun, then the…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

…then the gun went off accidentally and it caused the family members were dead. It continues to occur in America.

《The right of having a gun has been guaranteed in the constitution》

Why do the Americans have the gun like that? Because the constitution in America has guaranteed the right of having a gun, saying like the next.

A disciplined militia is indispensable for the safety in the free nation, no one can violate the right of possessing nor carrying the gun on the militia. Having and carrying the weapon by the militia has been guaranteed…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《The right of having a gun has been guaranteed in the constitution》

Having and carrying the gun has been guaranteed in the constitution.

When colonists went into the America so as to develop in the seventeenth century, there was neither the police nor the armed forces there, so they had to protect themselves then. In the first place, when the Puritan reached the continent of the North America in the Mayflower, lots of weapons including cannon were loaded in the ship. The pioneers made their town and all the men were under the obligation of…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《The right of having a gun has been guaranteed in the constitution》

…and all the men were under obligation to have a weapon and to defend their town in case of emergency, the spirit of defending their town for themselves has been constructed from then.

At the local area in America, a father carrying a hunting gun goes for hunting with his son and teaches him how to shoot the gun. It’s natural for them as the part of the home education.

Knowing how to handle the gun and driving a car is the testimony as the full fledged man in America.

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

At the American Revolution, American men ran to the battlefield with their weapon so as to fight against the English army who were well trained and had enough food and weapons, and they are the disciplined militia which the constitution says, and it has taken root as tradition since then.

In the first place the nation of America itself was born from the revolutionary war against England, so they’ve thought their nation was born by their weapons. The armed ideology has been combined into the DNA of the nation of America.

《The idea that the…》

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【America is the nation of liberty having a gun】

《The idea that the armament is indispensable for the democracy》

Furthermore, each state is a thing like the nation in America. When the federal government which exceeds each state was born, the people of each state had a persistent suspicion against the government then.

If the federal government limited the authority of each state or imposed its dictatorship on them, they have to resist against the federal government, so they thought they had to prepare for weapons. The militia developed into the national guard from the way of thinking.

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【America is the nation of liberty having a gun】

《The idea that the armament is indispensable for the democracy》

Besides, there was the lesson from the history of tyranny in Europe when the nation of America was constructed. It’s the king of the dictator alone who had the weapon in the feudal society of Europe.

If the residents who suffered from the tyranny by the dictator took up arms…the dictator feared it so much that it prevented the residents from having weapons. It’s the way of the dictator. Taking away the weapon from the residents under the slogan for the safety on the residents and…

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【America is the nation of liberty having a gun】

《The idea that the armament is indispensable for the democracy》

…and giving the name to its persona troop who obeyed the king as the military and forced to be armed. Taking away the weapon from the residents and taking away the right of armed from the residents is the idea of the dictator.

The people who constructed the America made much of the right that each of citizens were armed one by one and guaranteed it in the constitution. The government which is in the situation of dangerous because of armed residents. It’s not the society. They…

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【America is the nation of liberty having a gun】

They thought like that, but the society isn’t always made up with the disciplined militia, so the society falls into danger as practical matter.

《As to the constitution interpretation, there has been a discussion…》　

As to the item of guaranteeing the right that the residents arm, there has been the confrontation between the people who think they should promote the regulation on the gun and the others who are opposed to the regulation on the gun over the interpretation in America.

The group promoting the regulation on the gun has insisted…

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【America is the nation of liberty having a gun】

《As to the constitution interpretation, there has been a discussion…》

The group promoting the regulation on the gun has insisted like the next.

As long as being the member of the state of the National Guard which is the former militia, the right that the residents have weapon should be allowed. They think they should interpret like that. The constitution doesn’t always guarantee the right that all the American people have the weapon equally. When joining in the National Guard alone, the right of having the weapon is given.

On the other hand…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《As to the constitution interpretation, there has been a discussion…》

On the other hand, the group who is opposed to the regulation on the gun thinks like the next.

Each of them has the gun means that it prevents the feudal government from being autocracy, and the right is indispensable so as to defend the liberty on the residents.

Interpreting the constitution narrowly is the group who is for the regulation on the gun. On the contrary, interpreting broadly is the group who is against the regulation on the gun.

How do we interpret the right?

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【America is the nation of liberty having a gun】

《As to the constitution interpretation, there has been a discussion…》

The Supreme Court has made a decision on the confrontation between two of interpretation June in 2008. The constitution allows the residents to possess the weapon.

A guardman in Washington which is the capital in America sought for the liberty of possessing the gun at home, suing that the law forbids an individual the right to possess the gun, so it’s against the constitution. The trial started like that.

The judgement from the Supreme Federal Court was like the next.

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【America is the nation of liberty having a gun】

The constitution doesn’t allow that forbidding to have a gun so as to defend itself. In short, the Supreme Court judged that the constitution allows ordinary citizens to arm, but it allowed the regulation on possessing the gun to some extent.

But it allowed the right on the individual for possessing the gun formally causes the regulation on the gun to be by far harder than before.

《NRA which protects the right of having the gun》

NRA is an abbreviation of National Rifle Association.

If loving the freedom of speech and of religion, we…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

【NRA which protects the right of having a gun】

…we should add to the right of possessing the weapon which is the strongest body guard . The right of possessing the weapon is as if it were the insurance card for the freedom. It’s indispensable for not only our children but our next generation which continues forever.

Carlton Heston who used to be an actor said like that. NRA held its annual conference at Denver which was near the place of high school where the shooting incident broke out after ten days from the tragedy. The actor was the…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《NRA which protects the right of having a gun》

Charlton Heston who was the president of the NRA made a speech then, and its content was like that. The strongest organization supporting the society of the gun in America is this NRA. Its number of member is over three million, and its annual budget is ten billion yen if converting it into the Japanese yen. No less than four hundred of people work at its headquarters in New York.

As making the money talk, NRA had had a great influence over the political world. The President Bush who was the son…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《NRA which protects the right of having a right》

The President Bush who was the son gained the support from the NRA, and the President Bush who was the father used to be the president of the NRA before.

NRA used to be an organization with the aim of promoting the way of using the gun safely and taking responsibility for its use. It has been established in New York in 1871.

In the beginning of the establishment, it acted for holding a competition on shooting, or for holding a lecture of handling the gun safely, but learned to insist on the…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《NRA which protects the right of having a gun》

…but learned to insist on the right of having a gun gradually, and put effort into the activity of being opposed to the regulation on the gun.

NRA has been supported by the large amount of financial aid of gunmakers. The number of gun dealer including sole proprietors reaches no less than two hundred fifty thousand. The production and the sales on the gun becomes the primary industry and supports NRA firmly.

If there is a member of the Diet who promotes the regulation on the gun, NRA supports…

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【America is a nation of liberty having of right】

…NRA supports its opposition in the electoral area, pouring into abandon fund and making the opposition be elected and making the group which regulated the gun lose the election.

As a result, the member of Diet who is afraid of losing in the election can’t promote the regulation on the gun.

『Column, Charlton Heston』

He was born in the state of Illinois in 1924, majoring in linguistics in university and demonstrated the ability of speech at a speech contest. After being discharged from the military service on the Air Force, making his…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

『Column, Charlton Heston』

…making his debut in the Broadway. The work making his name unmoving popularity is the Greatest Show on the Earth by the maestro of Cecil. B, Demille in in 1952, and appeared in the masterpiece like Ten Commandments in 1956, Ben-Hur in 1958, and receiving the Academy Award for Best Actor in Ben-Hur.

His impression on the conservatives is strong as the president of the NRA, but he was well known as human rights advocate in the 1960s, for he defended Orson Wells who was banished from the Holy Wood, and backing up Sidney…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

…and backing up Sidney Poitier of a black actor. After a being top star in the Ben-Hur, he joined in the demonstration of the Civil Rights Movement for Martin Luther King. Considering the social situation then, his action needs to be brave.

《Though there has been the movement on the regulation of the gun…》

The law which regulated the gun formed nationwide uniform. It’s what’s called Brady bill, exactly Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.

Assassination attempt on the President Reagan broke out at Washington March in 1981, and then…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Though there has been the movement on the regulation of the gun…》

…and then the President was injured, and James Brandy who was the President Advisor was involved and injured, and he was forced to be in the life in wheelchair owing to the after effect on the incident.

After the incident, Mr. And Mrs. Brady established the gun control association, and worked on the form of regulating the sale of the gun, the bill is formed. Though the bill was rejected three times on account of the obstruction by the NRA, but the effort of the President Clinton…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Though there has been the movement on the regulation of the gun…》

…but the effort of the President Clinton succeeded in forming the bill at last in 1993 and started to be enforced from the next year.

But even if saying the regulation on the gun, it’s a simple one from the view point of us the Japanese.

When trying to buy a gun at the gun shop, they have to wait for five days, preventing them from buying at once. Obliging the police to research the antecedent on the person who hoped to buy the gun and prohibiting the one who has a heavy …

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Though there has been the movement on regulating the gun…》

…and prohibiting the one who has a heavy criminal record, the one who suffers from mental illness, a drug addict, a foreign person who stays illegally, and minor to sell the gun.

Four hundred forty thousand people applied for buying the gun in the first year, and eleven thousand people were rejected to be sold then.

It seems to be a loose regulation for us who live in Japan, but the regulation with the nationwide uniform was for the first time in America. But even if the lax…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

But even if the lax regulation like that, an opposing argument of invasion on the privacy of the person who buys the gun arose.

The bill expired in 2004, for the President Bush who was the son and one of the opposition group didn’t take action of putting off procedure. The bill regulating the gun with the nationwide uniform has learned not to exist, though some states regulate the gun originally.

《Who kills the people?》

A person isn’t killed with the gun, but the person kills the other. NRA has insisted like that. The claim itself is right.

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Who kills people?》

But actually a person kills the other with the gun. Without having the gun, no one can fire a gun easily, so the case doesn’t break out, and it doesn’t develop to a murder.

America and Canada connects by land, and each of culture resembles each other. If comparing America with Canada, it’s obvious. The murder case in Canada is less than that in America, for Canada regulates the gun strictly. It’s evident.

The Seattle at the state of Washington in America and the Vancouver in Canada is near, sharing the border each other.

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Who kills the people?》

It is said each of culture takes after. When researching the number of the crime breaking out in those of the two cities from 1980 to 1984, the percentage of breaking out the violence incident was almost same, but the percentage of breaking out the murder case in Seattle was five times as much as that in Vancouver, for there has been the regulation on gain the gun in Vancouver, but there is no regulation in Seattle.

The right of having a gun is engraved in the DNA since America was built, and if they insist that having…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun 】

…and if they insist that having a gun is the democracy, overturning it is hard. It’s the current situation in America.

《The right of having a gun expands to the world》

America tries to expand its ideal to the world, the author said like that before, as to the right of having a weapon, they don’t change their stance. It’s the opposing argument on the regulation over the national trade on the small weapon.

A conflict using small weapon like handgun, rifle, and machine gun continues at trouble spots in the world. The small weapon is inexpensive…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Expanding the right of having a gun to the world》

Small weapons are inexpensive and being able to use easily, so they are main weapons for guerrilla in the civil war, especially in Africa, even a child soldier is armed.

The United Nations estimate the number of the small weapon is over half billion in the world, and it is said half of them are illegal trade. The talk has been done in the United Nations so as to regulate the actual large amount of the destructive weapons since 1955, and Japan becomes the center of the talk and tried to put…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Expanding the right of having a gun to the world》

…and tried to form a consensus in the international opinion, but ran into unexpected hurdle. It’s America. Lots of nations including Japan thought limiting civilians to have small weapons, except for the government, trying to prevent civilians from importing nor exporting the small weapons at will, but America was opposed to this.

The one who was in charge of the arms control and the international security in America insisted like the next.

The constitution in America has guaranteed the …

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Expanding the light of having a gun to the world》

The constitution in America has guaranteed the liberty on individuals to possess or to carry weapons, and he was opposed to the limitation to possess the small weapons on individuals in the world.

As the small weapons make disputes escalate, lots of nations try to limit them, but America has brought up its own ideal there. Needless to say there is a reason for it, for America is a weapon superpower exporting the weapon a billion dollar a year.

The author said America is the nation of the…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《Expanding the right of having a gun to the world》

The author said America is a nation of military-industrial complex before, the interest on the maker of the small weapons is also protected under the name of the ideal of America.

After all, the council on small weapons in the United Nations over the limitation of the small weapons was held for the first time July in 2007. The action plan asking for each nation to realize to oblige makers of the weapons to engrave the manufacture so as to determine the distribution channel, asking for suppliers…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

…asking for suppliers to register, realizing the system of permission. Those things have been asked each nation so as to prevent them from trading illegally, but the plan for limiting individuals to possess small weapons nor limiting to import and to export the small weapons by the government alone wasn’t permitted.

Killing each other by the small weapons getting illegally will continue in conflict zones each nation in the world at present as well.

《What will happen to America in the future?》

The preparation of providing with weapons by being…

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【America is a nation of liberty having a gun】

《What will happen to America in the future?》

The preparation of providing with the gun being sold on individuals so as to defense for themselves has accelerated in America from what’s we call 9.11. Far from abandoning the weapons. The weapons so as to protect itself continues to be sold from the spirit defending for itself.

It’s the ATF which regulates illegal sales or sumuggling on the guns. ATF is the bureau of Alcohol、Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It’s the investing agency like the FBI, but it’s just that investing with the regulation…

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