Gun Rights Essay, Research Paper
Gun Control Is Really Gun Abolition!
At about three in the morning, a family residing in decent neighborhood outside of Los Angeles peacefully slept one night. Quietly, a thief picks the front door lock and advances into the living room. After observing no sustainable valuables, he sneaks down the hall into the master bedroom. Thinking that the couple lying in bed would not awake, the criminal begins unloading the jewelry box. As he looks over he notices a terrified woman staring at him. She screams, Mike wake up! Mike opens his eyes and sees the criminal rushing towards them. Mike reaches under the bed, meanwhile the criminal reaches for his pistol but he is too late, Mike has already aimed his .357 revolver. The criminal explodes out the bedroom and rushes out the front door. Mike runs to check on his two sons and finds that luckily everyone is safe, this time.
The Second Amendment protects our right to bear arms. This is one of, if not the most important rights drafted in the Constitution. Private gun ownership is critically important for self-protection. It is impossible to accept that law enforcement officers will arrive during a life threatening incident, in fact many times the police do not even arrive at a crime scene for several minutes and sometimes hours afterward. Many Gun control laws have already been authorized, aiming towards complete banishment of our Second Amendment right. Complete handgun abolition would be United State s most dangerous mistake.
Handgun restrictions are simply disguised policies of gradual complete firearm abolition. Just recently found in Time Magazine, Bill Clinton was asked if he was seeking total abolition of firearms, he replied, No, we re not there YET (Under the Gun, 42). Our Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution in effort to grant citizens freedom and create a democracy. James Madison praised, The ADVANTAGE of being armed, which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. Since that time, the Constitution has been altered and modified to fit society changes. But there are already too many restrictions on the Constitution s Second Amendment. Automatic weapons have already been banned. There is a 15-day waiting period for receiving a handgun after payment, as well as one gun a month laws. There are also laws for carrying your weapon and even personal background check.
In reality, areas of strongest firearm control also contain the highest crime rates. Washington D.C. and New York possess the most rigid gun control policies of the nation, yet they also hold the highest crime rate. Conversely, Arizona s citizens are permitted to carry handguns in their holsters, and they have a relatively small crime rate. Even more interesting, in 1986 Florida state issued 266,700 permits to bear concealed handguns, during that time the homicide rate decreased by 29%.
Crimes are currently taking part everywhere, whether involved in convenient stores, automobiles, banks, or even pedestrians on the streets. Among these crimes, house burglaries are midst a very low percentage. The reason being is the criminal s fear that the homeowner may also be a gun-owner. Criminals are more open burglarize unsecured areas. For example, During the Los Angles riots, Criminals rampaged along the city streets, far outnumbering LA County s police force. It took days for the police force to contain the looting, murdering, and crime. Many of the unarmed storeowners were completely shoplifted and forced to close their business. Yet the stores with armed security guards or armed themselves were not as devastated. If in Mike s position, would you want to be unarmed if an intruder trespassed into your home? I would want to defend my family with the same deadly force that I was being threatened with.
Gun control Advocates have been known to cite statistics such as, The number of gun related deaths are increasing at an alarming rate. Well so is the overall population, and along with population expansion most numbers are also going to multiply. Advocates also believe sterner gun control policies will force criminals to forfeit methods of acquiring firearms. This notion is asinine, due to present gun registration laws and background checks, criminals are already receiving firearms from the black-market. In addition, Black market firearms are frequently more powerful then the distributed handguns. This means that criminals will continue having powerful firearms while citizens will be unable to possess even a handgun.
There are reasonable forms of gun control. But the United States is directing towards complete abolition. This is unreasonable. The benefits of the Second Amendment far outweigh the risks. I agree that gun rights, as well as all rights, need some restrictions, but enough already. If this pace continues there will be no Second Amendment right at all. If gun abolition is successful, law-abiding citizens will become easy pickings for all criminals, especially those criminals armed and where else to better attack an unarmed citizen then in their own home.
Works Cited
Lacayo, Richard. Under the Gun Time Magazine 20, July 1998, Volume 152 : No. 2