Gun Control

Gun Control

Gun control, originally intended to restrict the possession and use of guns by private citizens, limits the citizens inalienable right to protect them selves. The right to carry a firearm and protect oneself is considered to be as basic a right as say, Free Speech by many gun owners. The statistics have clearly shown that gun control, while originally intended for good use, does not work that well as it disarms the law-abiding citizens, yet does nothing to impede the actions of criminals and mischiefs. Proponents of gun control want you to believe that by disarming the public, the criminals will eventually have no access to weapons, yet the correlation between the two has never been successfully demonstrated. Current gun control laws conform to the one size fits most label; however more specific alternatives should be researched.

Many enthusiasts simply believe that it is their God given right to have the ability to defend them selves, and their families from harm. The Second Amendment, as part of the United States Bill of Rights (Madison, 1791) protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms, and should be defended. Consequently there are some groups that believe otherwise and boldly state that if our right to bear arms was limited or removed that we would be safer. No substantive evidence exists to support this claim, and it is a bold and extraordinary move to strip away the very fabric from which this country was made.

Data collected from various government and state venues paint a very different picture than what they want us to believe about gun control. Several years ago the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports identified that in the states that have reformed laws to allow good citizens to protect themselves actively, the crime rates are much lower for every category of crime indexed (Michael, n.d.). The report went on to state that homicide, assault, and general violent crimes are each 40% lower, armed...