Anti Gun Control Despite Constitutional

Anti Gun Control

Despite Constitutional protection of the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" embedded in the Second Amendment, gun control remains a hotly debated political issue. As if the Constitution did not clearly state that the right to bear arms is as fundamental as the right to free speech, gun control advocates continue to barrage the media with misleading messages about the damage weapons do to American society. The Second Amendment guarantees that the right of the people to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed," meaning that gun control is a moot point: an issue that should not be debated in the first place. Gun violence is a problem; criminal behavior is a problem. However, guns are not the root cause of the problems endemic in American society. Guns have become a convenient political scapegoat to avoid dealing directly with the core issues that prompt gun-related violence, deaths, and massacres. If the children responsible for the Columbine incident or Virginia Tech did not have access to guns, they would have used other weapons at their disposal. In fact, the problems with American society are not related to the possession of firearms but to deeper causes including an unraveling of ethics and morals.

Preserving civil liberties such as the right to bear arms embedded in the Second Amendment demands a consistent application of the law. Restricting one civil liberty can unravel the whole fabric of the system, enabling hypocrisy and the slow, steady erosion of the rights Americans hold dearest. For example, any restriction on the freedom of speech can be viewed as a violation of civil liberties. Any restriction on the right to bear arms not only violates constitutional law -- which clearly states that the right to bear arms "shall not be infringed" -- but also violates core American values. Freedom is the essence of American society.

The Brady Campaign remains the most vocal political lobbying group for gun control. Started by Jim Brady in the wake of his being shot during the assassination attempt on President Reagan, the organization is now responsible for spearheading anti-gun programs in Washington. Granted, the issues the Brady Campaign and other gun control groups raise are plausible. Guns often fall into the hands of immoral, violent criminals. Lax gun laws allow criminals to get a hold of guns, and therefore, argues the Brady Campaign, laws should restrict access to firearms.

However sound on the surface, the Brady Campaign argument fails to acknowledge the power of the black market in supplying weapons to criminals who want them. By definition, criminals usurp the law. Criminals will stop at nothing, including breaking the law, to get what they want. If guns are what they want then they will retrieve them on the black market. Therefore, gun control does little if anything to curb criminal possession of firearms such as those used to shoot President Reagan or the litany of students at Columbine or Virginia Tech. Another similar argument against the right to bear arms relates to how the weapons are often fired in vein or accidentally due to unsafe construction. In fact, proper education regarding the handling of firearms and safe storage and usage of them is all that is needed to prevent accidental deaths. Gun violence that takes place in spite of safety precautions is a shame; husbands and wives occasionally kill each other out of a moment of rage. Yet guns were only one weapon available; if the gun eople kwasn't in the house tempers would still have raged and there would be many other ways of killing a person ranging from kitchen knives to lampposts. Guns don't kill people; pill people.

Gun control rests on spurious arguments. Arguments in favor of protecting the Second Amendment make far more sense, especially in light of the law that the Constitution guarantees. In addition to protecting constitutional law, anti-gun control advocates like the National Rifle Association champion the rights and freedoms of average Americans. In a world rife with criminality, citizens need to be able to protect themselves as best they can. The government has no right turning a blind eye to criminals who possess arms, allowing innocent citizens to live unprotected in their own homes. It is far too late to restrict access to guns, anyway. The market has already opened its arms to criminals who have stashes of weapons. Those weapons aren't going anywhere and so American citizens must have unrestricted access to the weapons that can protect them from being killed by criminals.

Gun control also prevents objective education surrounding the proper use of guns. If young adults are taught how to properly store and use a firearm they are less likely to use them indiscriminately. Respect for guns helps create a more educated, enlightened society instead of one that cowers in fear from the very thought of a weapon that has been around for centuries.

The original purpose of the Second Amendment was to empower the citizens of the United States: to ensure that if a tyrannical government should instate itself the people have the power and the right to form militias. Even if the idea seems far-fetched, for a government to suddenly become tyrannical is by no means impossible. As the Commander-in-Chief, the President of the United States has at his or her disposal the full onslaught of the American military. If the President wanted to mobilize troops for some malicious purpose, then citizens should have the right to protect themselves, their families and their communities. Gun control would mean that American citizens are powerless to defend themselves against their own government. Gun control would also mean that in the case of a sudden terrorist attack that citizens would be wholly dependent on the American government and its armed forces to step in. In reality, though, by the time the government organized troops to a disaster zone it would be too late. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is more important now in the age of terrorism than it ever was even when the Bill of Rights was drafted.