The 2nd Amendment

Most people would link violence and crime problems with gun control in America. The debate that Americans face today is the freedom the Second Amendment gives citizens and whether or not the country should repeal it. While some people feel that repealing it should solve the problem, others believe that it is one of the most important basic freedoms we have as Americans. Federal gun control laws are unconstitutional, and I believe the Second Amendment is both an individual and state right.The second amendment states: “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” (The United States Constitution). Most gun control supporters will claim that this was written during a time when militias were needed during the war with the British and that we now have the U.

S. Military to protect us. These people who fight against the Second Amendment do not understand that we will always have enemies.When a citizen is attacked or robbed, the first reaction is to call the police. Why, because police officers have guns! According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, there are only 1. 8 full time police officers to protect 25,000 to 49,000 citizens (“Police Officers to Population Ration”2010). It seems almost impossible for one or two police officers to protect that many citizens, and I personally would rather use my right to protect myself until a police officer arrives.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says that “John Locke (b. 632, d. 1704) was a British philosopher”, he was very successful in government and much of our country was built around his ideas. He believed that a free person should be allowed to protect himself and his property. If the Second Amendment is repealed then this would take away our basic human rights that our country was founded upon. I believe most people that support gun control do not understand why we need to protect ourselves, law enforcement officials are only able to react if they witness a crime or a citizen informs them of a crime being committed.The National Rifle Association is an interest group that supports our right to bear arms.

They have been around for over a century and continue to lobby in Congress to help protect our Second Amendment. They currently have 4. 3 million members that support the Second Amendment and other groups that educate citizens on gun safety. This group has made a tremendous difference on how our government and society views gun control and is probably the biggest reason we still have our right to bear arms. (www. nraila. org) The majority of gun crimes are committed with handguns and assault riffles.

Assault riffles should be banned from retail all together, and there should be a more detailed process when purchasing handguns. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act requires purchasers to complete a background check and a five day waiting period before they are allowed to purchase a gun. This seems to help so that we aren’t putting guns into criminal’s hands straight from the store, but it is not an overall solution. (www. nraila. org) The supporters of gun control want our government to eliminate the sales of guns to the public. This will make a tremendous difference as far as gun crimes are concerned.

Kids and teenagers would no longer be exposed to guns inside the households and this will prevent these kids and teens from making bad uneducated decisions. As long as the Second Amendment is still in effect, there are other things I believe that gun control groups could place more focus on to help teens in an effort to stop gun violence. I grew up in a family of hunters, I began shooting hunting rifles at age seven, and I have never committed any sort of crime. I was educated at a very young age on how to handle a gun and the dangers that could come from it.Most kids today were not raised like I was and this where parents and mentors can make a difference. More steps should be taken to educate kids at an early age before they are influenced by things such as television, movies, and the inappropriate music. (www.

med. umich. edu) Today’s popular culture is one of the reasons we have seen violence rates rise. Parents and guardians have come to rely on television and video games to entertain there children. They are unaware of the types of games kids play, and the types of people there kids are hanging out with.When my dad was a kid in the 1950s, he said that disputes between kids were handled by fighting, and that guns and other means of violence were considered unfair and unmanly. What happened to these times? Crimes and robberies will continue to happen even if we eliminate our right to bear arms.

The black market will always be around and criminals will stop at nothing to get what they want. I believe that we can prevent much of this by creating more community watch groups, understanding and educating our communities on the effects of violence, and enforcing stricter laws for purchasing and carrying handguns.As humans we need to protect ourselves, and many of us still rely on hunting rifles to feed our families. If you take that away, then we are defenseless and can no longer consider this a free country to live in. In today’s scary world, criminals go to extreme measures to hurt others, these people will find new ways if we took guns from there hands. I feel like I would not be able to protect my wife and two year old daughter if someone approached me with a gun, this is something that every man should be able to do.I know if my right to bear arms was taken from me, it would hard for me to give up my guns that I use for hunting and protection.

It is easy to look at the bad things that can come from owning a gun instead of the good things. People today get so one track minded and do not understand that there is history, sportsmanship, beauty, and pride in owning a gun. Let’s put focus as individuals and groups towards fighting crime instead of fighting guns and I believe that our country will then see a difference. Remember, it’s not the gun that kills people, it is the person who pulls the trigger.