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Second Amendment Research Paper

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Ratified December 15, 1791, the bill of rights was added to the U.S. Constitution as a way to ensure the protection of every individual’s rights. The bill itself is a list of rights which limits the power of the federal government and gives power back to the people in the form of rights and liberties. Some of this rights include freedom of speech, religion, and press, but perhaps the one right that still to this day has many people questioning the meaning behind its wording is the Second Amendment. 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” (Acosta, 2008). In short the amendment grants the right to bear arms, …show more content…

The major issue when talking about gun control lies in the process of acquiring a weapon and the wide variety of them, which range from handguns to rifles. It is rather shocking to find out that the process to buy a gun is to go to a retail outlet, give your information to the clerk, and have this information entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which usually takes a few minutes, and if it passed, voila! There is a newly registered weapon out in the streets. This, of course, is not the only way someone could acquire a gun. There are also private sales, which do not require background checks, gun trafficking and through the stealing of weapons. It has been recorded that the number one trafficking source, responsible for over 40,000 guns, are federally licensed dealers. ("Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence – Gun Law Information Experts," 2012) But it should also be noted that unless a person is “convicted of a felony, admitting to being addicted to a controlled substances, having been dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces, or being subject to a restraining order” that purchase will not be denied and in cases where it is only 2% of every background check is denied. (Jones, 2013, p.1) But is it that only things that can be seen are limiting factors and not those things underneath the surface, like mental …show more content…

Law abiding citizens would actually turn in their weapons while criminals would not and like many anti-gun control supporters say, it would only put the rest of us in danger. But giving everyone weapons just in case we are to ever need them is not the answer either. In recent years, gun violence has increased not just out in the streets, but sadly enough this increase has been transferring to schools nationwide. Just in these past 10 months, there have been 52 school shootings and since the Sandy Hook massacre there has been 152 shooting, all ranging from pre-school level to college. And the grand majority of these shooters have been reported to have some sort of mental illness though the percentage of those shooters with actual mental illness are

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