Gun Violence : The Pros And Cons Of The Second Amendment

With the popular culture providing positive images of guns, the United States has a gun prevalence that is very rare in the modern world. While many people appreciate the “gun culture”, guns are heavily involved in violence in the United States. According to U.S. Department of Justice, since 1960, more than 750,000 Americans have died under firearms, including homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries. The figure 1 provides a comprehensive survey of U.S. violent crimes for the period from 1993 to 2011.This figure illustrates that from 1993 to 2011, about 60% to 70% of homicides were associated with a firearm. Over the same period, between 6% and 9% of all nonfatal violence, with about 20% to 30% of robberies and 22% to 32% of aggravated assaults involving a firearm.

This opinion piece from The Washington Post was written by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut. Published days after the recent Las Vegas Shooting, Murphy tells of his past experiences with gun violence urging for stronger gun control legislation. He states that the “phenomenon of horrific mass shootings is exclusive to the United States”, so the solution should be able to be solved by Americans. He argues that our response to “regular mass shootings” has been un-American, and how can a country that has solved the greatest problems in the world, not solve a problem that puts our fellow citizens in harm. “…we choose to be an increasingly distant outlier of exceptional violence”, Murphy states.

The United States is one of the few countries were the right to bear arms is protected by the constitution. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most violent with incidents involving guns this year reaching an estimated 36,212 and an approximate 9,050 deaths (“Gun Violence Archive”). There are an estimated 310 million firearms in households across American, these are only estimates because current gun laws do not require them to be registered or tracked. A more staggering estimate is that most of the guns owned by private citizens are semi-automatic guns, the same type of gun used in almost all mass shootings. While these privately owned guns are legally purchased, many times, they land in the hands of criminals, and owners never report them stolen. Mass shootings and gun crimes are not the only issues with gun violence the one never talked about is suicide, more guns available equals more suicides. The United States is one of the easiest countries to own a gun legally or illegally, stricter gun control laws are necessary.

Mass shootings are increasing in the United States, and gun control advocates are seizing the opportunity to push anti-gun legislation to deter gun violence in America. Guns and the Second Amendment have come to the forefront of political rhetoric, leading to conflicting views between lawmakers on the future of gun legislation. Republican lawmakers are encouraging law abiding citizens to acquire firearms and to defend themselves against acts of violence by criminals. On the contrary, Democratic lawmakers believe the only way to slow gun violence in the United States is to remove guns from society. While certain politicians believe strict gun laws would protect the American people, the proposed policies would make our nation more vulnerable

In the Second Amendment, it gives people the right to bear firearms. This means that most people can own a gun legally and use it how they want. Some can use them for hunting, target practice, defense, or for a collection. As of now most people can go to a gun store, maybe pass a background check, fill out some papers, and come back with a weapon. If you buy it elsewhere, you might not have to pass or sign anything.

In most cases even preventing the crime from taking place in the first place. While the second amendment protected these individuals, it has also harmed others; According to 2014 Crime in the United States, Expanded Homicide, roughly 14,000 murders committed in the United States during that year, of these, about 10,000, were committed with firearms. While repealing the second amendment would have decreased the deaths, the criminals who are doing harm, will still find a way to commit harm with or without a firearm. It would give the criminal the advantage of knowing that the citizens do not carry guns and would lead to the criminal to conduct the crime because the citizen cannot defend himself. The problem with repealing the second amendment is that criminals would still find a way to commit the crime if the second amendment gets repealed. As shown in Criminal Victimization 2014, roughly 5.9 million violent crimes were committed in the United States during 2014 these included assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, rapes, and murders. 10% were perpetrated by offenders visibly armed with a gun. This goes to show that 10% of these cases did the criminals require the use of a firearm to commit these offenses. Meaning that the criminal committing the crimes would have committed the crime with or without the firearm when only 10% of the criminals needed a gun to go through with their crime. Taking away guns would

Gun control has been a long debate to determine if it’s better to have stricter access to firearms. America is one of the few countries that has gun rights embedded in their constitution. But what makes the US exceptional is that it has the right to keep and bear arms, other countries do not provide the right to have access to them, but rather, the government is allowed to regulate its use. The right to bear arms has also been the cause of growing violence and crime, at least according to anti-gun lobbyists. Citizens should be aware the dangers and harm that guns present to society. Controlling the sale of firearms can greatly decrease the number of violent crimes.

In the Constitution, the second amendment gives the American people to have the right to possess and bear arms. This amendment has been the most controversial issue since guns have been around. Issues such as gun control and gun ownership have remained a matter of debate and have been floating around in Congress. It has been rumored that Congress is forced to draft certain legislation in order to come up with a law against unlawful use of arms, and only owning them for safety purposes. When it comes to congress, Republicans and Democrats have debated their views on gun-control in the United States to best fit the overall well-being of the citizens. These different points of views have caused many discussions on how this controversial topic should be handled and whether or not it conflicts with the second amendment. Throughout this topic, Republicans and hardcore NRA supporters favor with less strict rules of gun-control while Democrats want stricter rules such as a background check for every citizen that poses a threat to either the United States of America or the average citizen. The debate on guns in America has essentially become one more distracting, off-point topic in culture wars.

The Second Amendment states that “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 way the Supreme Court interprets this amendment changes constantly because not even the Supreme Court fully understands the limits and rights given to citizens. Some argue that this amendment protects our right to own a gun, but is not very clear. Over the years the second amendment has become a huge debate over gun rights and gun control. This is a cause of all the gun violence this country has been facing for many years and they need a way to help prevent gun violence or even suppress the amount of deaths faced by these tragedies. One of the ways this

The United States of America is one of the very few countries in the world that allows their citizens to bear arms. The right to bear arms traces back all the way to the times of the 13 colonies. The Second Amendment has been up for many debates, especially in the recent light of mass shootings in the US. But does the entire removal and ban of firearms really work? Gun control and the second amendment has been a never ending conflict between politicians. As we look further into gun control there are more draw backs for the citizens than benefits.

The United States Constitution was constructed from a set of rules, also known as amendments. These were written with the intention of securing the basic rights of all United States citizens. It usually serves as an outline for the laws of the land by dictating the powers of the people and what is acceptable under the watch of the United States government. The history behind these amendments began in 1789 when it was proposed and drafted by James Madison. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as part of the first ten amendments contained in the Bill of Rights. (History.com Staff 2009)

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Nevertheless, there are people who started to turn around and think in a different direction. They believe that Second Amendment was only meant for militia units who have permission to bear arms. In recent report from 2011, there were 32,163 deaths in the United States that is related to guns in which 11,101 of them are homicide and 19,776 of them are suicide. That number makes America a seven times higher in the gun homicide rate over other countries such as Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia (O'Brien, Forrest, Lynott, & Daly, 2013). Questions were asked to the politicians on how to control the gun regulation in a country such as the United States.

The research that I conducted this semester focused on the Second Amendment and whether or not it should eliminate. Essay one, "The Rights to Bear Arms" explains citizens have the right to rebel against a tyrannical government by using guns for self-defense, and the gun owner shouldn 't deprive of something they love because other people abuse it. Essay two “Gun control” argue that the Second Amendment should eliminate because it increased the potential for crimes and the number of accidental gun deaths, creates an unsafe environment, and legally owned guns are frequently stolen and used by criminals. Although both essays relied on academic research, they are not concise enough to the point and confuse the reader.

Some people believe that extremely tight gun control laws will eliminate crime, but gun control laws only prevent the 'good guys' from obtaining firearms. Criminals will always have ways of getting weapons, whether it be from the black market, cross borders, or illegal street sales. New gun control laws will not stop them. Since the shootings of Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook, the frequency of mass shootings has increased greatly. Gun control is not effective as it has not been shown to actually reduce the number of gun-related crimes. Instead of considering a ban of private firearm possession, and violating individual ownership rights, it may be more practical to consider the option of partially restricting firearm