Why were still arguing about gun control worksheet answers

Use underscores between any words you want to keep together when blanking. e.g. "buckle_up" and "tuck_in".

1. Passage of Text Without Blanks:

2. Click to Remove Words:

• Click on words under "Cloze Passage" below to remove them.
• Hold the key and click to remove all occurrences of a word.
• Click on a ______ to reset it.

Cloze Passage:

Words Removed:

3. Answer Hints:

Length of Blanks:

Short blanks for short words, long blanks for long words.

Same length blank regardless of word length (harder).

Word Bank:

Show blanked words in a Word Bank above cloze text.

Show each occurrence of a duplicate.

Show duplicate words only once.

The hail of gunfire in Las Vegas went on for a full 10 minutes.

During that time, more than a thousand bullets rained down on a helpless crowd of 22,000 people at an outdoor country music festival. Stephen Paddock, 64, had turned his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel into a killing perch. By the time the onslaught ended, 58 people were dead and more than 500 wounded in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

When police finally stormed Paddock's room and discovered that he'd killed himself, they found more than 20 guns, rifle scopes, high-capacity magazines that can hold up to 100 bullets at a time, and at least one bump stock, a device that allows a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster, at a rate similar to that of a fully automatic weapon.

As authorities try to figure out what motivated Paddock, the tragedy has reignited the national debate over the Second Amendment and gun control. The U.S. has more guns per capita than any other developed country--and far more gun violence. The guestion is whether stricter gun control laws would help. Congress, like the nation, has long been divided. Here's what you need to know to understand the ongoing debate.

1 What is gun control?

Gun control is a broad term that covers many kinds of restrictions. It can include regulations on what kinds of firearms can be bought and sold, who can possess or sell them, and where and how they can be stored or carried.

Gun control can involve the responsibilities a seller has to check a buyer's background and whether a gun sale should be reported to the government. The term also covers limits on types of ammunition and the size of magazines (the part of the gun that holds ammunition).

In recent years, gun control debates have focused on three issues:

* background checks for buyers

* the laws regulating who can carry weapons in public

* the kinds of guns and gun accessories available for purchase.

In the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting, attention has focused not only on assault rifles, which are military-style weapons capable of firing multiple bullets quickly, but also on devices that can be attached to semiautomatic guns to make them fire more quickly.

2 What's the state of federal gun control today?

Federal law prohibits specific groups of people from owning firearms. The list includes convicted felons, those diagnosed with certain types of mental illness, and undocumented immigrants.

Since 1994, licensed gun dealers have been required to conduct background checks on potential buyers through an F.B.I, database. This is meant to prevent the sale of guns to someone who's prohibited from owning one.

But many small-scale gun sellers claim to be "hobbyists," who aren't required to conduct background checks. Because many of these sellers do business at gun shows, this is often referred to as "the gun show loophole." Another problem: Most people with serious mental illness never receive a diagnosis, so they can still own guns legally.

3 Where does the American public stand?

Gun control has long been one of the most sharply divisive issues in the U.S. In general, Democrats and city dwellers tend to favor tighter restrictions on guns. Republicans and people in rural areas, where guns are more common, tend to favor protecting gun rights.

But following the Las Vegas attacks, a Politico poll found that 64 percent of Americans want tighter gun laws, while 29 percent oppose more regulation. There's more consensus on some specific measures: A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 83 percent of Democrats and 81 percent of Republicans support background checks for all gun purchases.

4 What are the arguments against gun control?

Gun rights advocates see weapons possession as a matter of individual rights. They say that people have the right to arm themselves for hunting, self-defense, and sport--or just because they want to.

Gun owners say weapons can actually make society safer by giving people the power to defend themselves.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association (N.RA.), the country's most powerful gun-rights group, famously said in 2012.

The debates often come down to the Second Amendment, which was adopted in 1791. Americans have long argued over its wording: "A well regulated Militia,* being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

For generations, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided answering the question of whether the Second Amendment guaranteed an individual's right to bear arms or just the people's collective right, through a militia. But in 2008 and 2010, the Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep a firearm. But since the Court did say some level of regulation was appropriate, the rulings have only fueled the debate over what limits the government can place on gun ownership.

5 What are the arguments in favor?

While gun rights advocates say arming people makes for a safer society, people who favor gun control say the opposite is true: The more people carry weapons, the more likely it is that someone will use one to kill.

In 2015, there were more than 36,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S. About two-thirds were suicides and about a third were homicides.

Gun control supporters cite figures that equate high rates of gun ownership with more gun violence. According to a 2007 report called the Small Arms Survey, there were 89 guns per 100 people in the U.S., more than in any other country. (Yemen, second on the list, had 55 guns per 100 people.) At the same time, gun related homicide rates are more than 25 times higher in the U.S. than in any other high-income country.

Supporters say tougher laws in other countries keep gun deaths down. Australia, for example, had 13 mass shootings from 1979 to 1996. After a gunman killed 35 people in 1996, the country passed strict laws banning many weapons. It hasn't had a mass shooting since.

Gun control advocates say closing gun control loopholes would still allow law-abiding people to have firearms, while resulting in far fewer deaths. In other words, they argue, it's not a question of disarming the public, but a matter of where to draw sensible limits.

6 Why are gun laws so controversial?

For many politicians, particularly those in rural states, supporting gun rights is critical to getting re-elected. Also, the N.R.A. and other gun-rights groups are powerful and well-funded, and many politicians don't want to anger them. Fearing that any additional restrictions will lead to an outright ban on weapons, the gun lobby has become more unyielding in recent years, opposing measures like more-stringent background checks, which it once supported.

Over the past generation, American politics has become more partisan and regional divisions more rigid. Republicans have become more uniformly opposed to gun laws at a time when they control Congress and most statehouses.

7 What have states done?

Most gun control exists at the state level. Some states require a license or permit to own a gun, but most don't. California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island have the most restrictive laws.

But in other parts of the country, many states have recently passed laws making it easier to buy or carry guns. Wisconsin has eliminated its 48-hour waiting period to buy handguns. Ohio now allows concealed weapons to be brought into day care facilities and airports.

The wide variety of regulations in different states allows guns to flow freely across state lines. For example, New York has very strict gun laws, but more than two-thirds of guns used in crimes in New York City come from states with weaker gun laws.

8 Now what?

For decades, any measure to restrict guns has essentially been dead on arrival in the U.S. Congress. Republican lawmakers--often with the support of conservative Democrats--have blocked any attempt to pass new gun laws, even after mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007; at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; and at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub last year.

With the tragedy in Las Vegas, lawmakers may have found an area of agreement: banning the sale of bump stocks--the device the Las Vegas shooter used to make his semiautomatic gun fire like an automatic weapon. (Automatic weapons are much more tightly regulated under federal law.)

"I own a lot of guns, and as a hunter and sportsman, I think that's our right as Americans, but I don't understand the use of this bump stock," says Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican. "It seems like it's an obvious area we ought to explore and see if it's something Congress needs to act on."

But gun control advocates say much broader action is needed.

"Most of the gun violence that happens in this country is not because of bump stocks," says Chelsea Parsons of the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. "Banning bump stocks is not a sufficient congressional response to this tragedy."

But in a deeply divided Congress, it may be the best place to start. "For decades, compromise between Republicans and Democrats on this issue has been elusive," Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo of Florida told CNN. "This might be a small but a very important step."

With reporting by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Tiffany Hsu, and David Brooks of The New York Times.

LESSON PLAN: CLOSE READING

NATIONAL PAGES 6-9

Lexile levels available online

Why We're Still Arguing About Gun Control

The tragedy in Las Vegas has reignited the debate over America's gun laws.

Before Reading

1 Set Focus: Pose the following essential question: When does the government have the right to restrict people's personal freedoms?

2 List Vocabulary: Share with students some of the challenging vocabulary words in this article (see right). Encourage them to use context to infer meanings as they read.

3 Engage: Review what students know about the mass shooting in Las Vegas, and ask what questions they have about the gun control debate.

4 Read: Have students read the article, marking the text to note key ideas or questions.

5 Discuss: Distribute or project Up Close: Why We're Still Arguing About Gun Control, a close-reading activity for students to work on in small groups. (Note: The questions on the PDF also appear on the facing page of this lesson, with possible responses.) Follow up with a class discussion. If you're short on time, have each group tackle one or two of the questions. Collect students' work, or have each group report its findings to the class.

* What is the author's main purpose in this article? How does the question-and-answer format support this purpose?

Author's purpose, text structure

(The author's purpose is to give a primer, or basic introduction, to the gun control issue. Rather than share her own opinion, she sets out to summarize both sides of the debate and to give background information. The question-and-answer format supports this purpose by simplifying the topic and allowing the author to address questions students might have about the debate.)

* How does the author support the claim that "gun control is a "broad term that covers many kinds of restrictions"?

Cite text evidence

(The author supports this claim by describing many categories of gun control regulations. She notes that gun control can mean regulations on what kinds of firearms can be sold, who can buy or sell them, where and how guns can be stored and carried, whether gun sales should require background checks and reports to the government, and what kinds of ammunition can be used.)

* Based on the article, what is a loophole? What, specifically, is the "gun show loophole"?

Understand word meaning

(You can infer from the text that a loophole is a gap or an unclear aspect in a rule or law that allows for an exception to the rule or law. The "gun show loophole" refers to the fact that while licensed gun dealers must conduct background checks on potential buyers, small-scale gun sellers who claim to be hobbyists do not need to do checks. Many of these people sell at gun shows.)

* Summarize the main arguments put forth by people on each side of the gun control debate. Which arguments do you find most convincing? Why?

Summarize, evaluate claims

(Gun rights advocates say the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives people the right to arm themselves and that guns can make society safer by allowing people to defend themselves. Gun control proponents, on the other hand, argue that the more people there are who own and carry guns, the more likely it is that those guns will be used to harm or kill people. They note that tougher laws in other countries help reduce gun deaths. Students will have varying opinions and should support them with sound reasoning and evidence.)

* Different states have different gun regulations. What effect does this have, according to the article? Cause & effect, cite text evidence

(The article explains that because gun regulations can vary widely by state, people often buy guns in one state and transport them into another. As an example, the article notes, "New York has very strict gun laws, but more than two-thirds of guns used in crimes in New York City come from states with weaker gun laws.")

* Study the gun ownership map that appears on p. 8. What does it add to your understanding of the gun control debate?

Integrate multiple sources

(The map shows that while 30 percent of Americans own guns, the rates vary widely among individual states. For example, seven states have gun ownership rates of 50 percent or higher. Seven others have gun ownership rates below 20 percent.)

Extend & Assess

6 Writing Prompt

Why is gun control such a divisive issue in this country? Do you think the nation will eventually come together on this issue? Share your thoughts in a brief essay, using details from the article to support your response.

7 Video

Watch and discuss the video on the Second Amendment.

8 Classroom Debate

Take a stand: Would stricter gun control laws help curb gun violence in the U.S.?

9 Quiz & Skills

Use the quiz (p. T8) to assess comprehension, the graph activity (p. T11) to examine some statistics in the gun debate, and Organizing Ideas (online) to hone outlining skills.

felons (p. 7)

loophole (p. 7)

divisive (p. 7)

consensus (p. 7)

partisan (p. 9)

uniformly (p. 9)

Additional Resources

upfrontmagazine.com

Print or project:

* Article Quiz (online and on p. T8)

* Up Close: Why We're Still Arguing About Gun Control? (close reading; online only)

* Analyze the Graph (online and on p. T11)

* Organizing Ideas (outlining; online only)

Video:

The Second Amendment

Analyze the Article

Find all activity sheets and other support materials at upfrontmagazine.com

QUIZ

For use with "Why We're Still Arguing About Gun Control" on p. 6 of the magazine

Why We're Still Arguing About Gun Control

Choose the best answer for each of the following guestions. For the analysis section, refer to the article as needed.

CHECK COMPREHENSION

1. In the recent Las Vegas mass shooting, Stephen Paddock used a device called a bump stock, which is designed to

a muffle the sound of gunfire from an automatic weapon,

b let a shooter zero in on a target from thousands of yards away,

c allow a semiautomatic rifle to fire rounds faster,

d make a rifle lightweight and easier to carry.

2. The Las Vegas shooting has put which constitutional amendment in the spotlight?

a First Amendment

b Second Amendment

c Fourth Amendment

d Fifth Amendment

3. According to the article, federal law specifies all of the following EXCEPT

a undocumented immigrants can't own firearms,

b licensed gun dealers must do background checks on buyers,

c firearms may not be sold at gun shows,

d people diagnosed with certain types of mental illness can't own firearms.

4. Which of these statements is true?

a Most states require a license for gun ownership,

b Ohio has the most restrictive gun laws in the country,

c Most current gun control laws exist at the state level,

d all of the above

ANALYZE THE TEXT

5. in the section "What are the arguments in favor?" which two words have nearly the same meaning?

a arming and banning

b loopholes and limits

c cite and allow

d advocates and supporters

6. You can reasonably infer from the section

"What are the arguments against control?" that the Supreme Court rulings on guns in 2008 and 2010

a did not reference the Second Amendment,

b looked at militia rights but not individual rights,

c largely pleased gun rights advocates,

d put tight new restrictions on gun ownership.

7. Which excerpt from the article best supports the answer to question 6?

a "The debates often come down to the Second Amendment ..."

b "Americans have long argued over its wording ..."

c "For generations, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided answering the question of whether the Second Amendment guaranteed an individual's right to bear arms."

d "... the Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep a firearm."

8. Based on the article, which type of regulation is most likely to get passed by the U.S. Congress?

a a restriction on bump stocks

b a restriction on hunting rifles

c a ban on large gun shows

d a ban on semiautomatic weapons

IN-DEPTH questions Please use the other side of this paper for your responses.

9. How did the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on gun rights in 2008 and 2010 affect the debate over gun control?

10. Why do you think the gun control debate keeps growing more and more partisan?

GRAPH

For use with "Why We're Still Arguing About Gun Control" on p. 6 of the magazine

Where the Guns Are

Because some gun sales do not require background checks and because many guns are obtained illegally, it's impossible to pinpoint the exact number of privately owned firearms in the U.S. But most estimates put the number at about 300 million. As the graphs at right show, the U.S. has a higher rate of gun ownership than any other nation in the world. Study the graphs and ask yourself why certain countries might be on the top graph or the bottom graph. Think about the political situation, culture, government, and history of each country. If you don't know much about the country, refer to Upfront's World Affairs issue (Oct. 30, 2017).

Caption: The graph above shows the countries with the most guns per 100 people. The one at right shows the countries with the fewest. Note the different scales used for the two graphs.

COUNTRIES WITH THE MOST GUNS

COUNTRIES WITH THE FEWEST GUNS

ANALYZE THE GRAPH

1. Which country on the graphs has about 55 guns per 100 people?

a Indonesia

b Switzerland

c Iraq

d Yemen

2. Ethiopia has an average of--firearms per 100 people.

a 0.4

b 4

c 40

d none of the above

3. Which country has about 50 fewer firearms per 100 people than the U.S. does?

a Iraq

b Serbia

c Tunisia

d Eritrea

4. Sweden has a population of nearly 10 million. You can conclude that it has about --firearms.

a 1 million

b 2 million

c 3 million

d 5 million

5. Which statement is true, based on the graphs?

a Bangladesh has more guns per 100 people than Sweden does,

b Uruguay and Sweden have about the same number of guns per 100 people,

c Ghana has about 4 guns per 100 people,

d all of the above

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

6. Why are the two graphs drawn to such different scales? Why do you think the editors made a point of calling your attention to this difference?

7. What do you find most interesting or surprising about these graphs? Why?

QUIZ * PAGE T8

1. [c] allow a semiautomatic rifle to fire rounds faster.

2. [b] Second Amendment

3. [c] firearms may not be sold at gun shows.

4. [c] Most current gun control laws exist at the state level.

5. [d] advocates and supporters

6. [c] largely pleased gun rights advocates.

7. [d] "... the Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep a firearm."

8. [a] a restriction on bump stocks

GRAPH EXERCISE * PAGE T11

1. [d] Yemen

2. [a] 0.4

3. [b] Serbia

4. [c] 3 million

5. [b] Uruguay and Sweden have about the same number of guns per 100 people.

Caption: TWO VIEWS OF GUN CONTROL: Political cartoons (right and facing page), illustrate opposing sides of the debate.

Caption: Fleeing gunfire at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas in October; 58 people were killed.

Caption: GUN OWNERSHIP BY STATE Overall, about 30 percent of Americans own guns, but the rates vary widely among states

Caption: Shooting practice in Newberg, Oregon; guns are part of the culture in many places around the U.S.

COUNTRIES WITH THE
MOST MASS SHOOTIHGS

1966-2012

90  United
    States

18  Philippines

15  Russia

11  Yemen

10  France

SOURCE: JAMES LANKFORD/UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA.
NOTE: FOR THE STUDY, A MASS SHOOTING IS DEFINED
AS ONE WITH FOUR OR MORE VICTIMS.

COPYRIGHT 2017 Scholastic, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.

Copyright 2017 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

What are some arguments for gun control?

What should I write about in gun control essay?

Why is gun control laws important?

What is gun control simplified?

What is a good thesis statement for gun control?