Handgun Control the Great Majority

Handgun Control

The great majority of people want to live in a safe society. In order to do this, they willingly pay taxes that are used to pay for fire and police protection. Police protection in particular serves the purpose of preventing crimes by being a presence in the community. We arm our police because sometimes they will face criminals who are armed. The police are highly trained in how to use firearms to help preserve peace, but civilians are not. Some people feel that citizens should be allowed to arm themselves for protection against criminals as well, but civilians are not trained in the safe use of firearms for protective purposes. For this reason, handguns should be restricted to use by police personnel.

Laws are passed for the purpose of serving the greater good of the community that passes the laws. At the federal level, we have the Constitution. Those who support the right of private citizens to carry handguns point to the Constitution, which clearly protects the right to bear arms. However, it can be argued that the founding fathers included this rule so citizens could form citizen militias, which played an important part in the American Revolutionary War. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say a person can keep a handgun in his or her home, keep it loaded, and shoot people who try to intrude into their homes. In fact, depending on the circumstances, someone who shoots an individual trying to enter his or her home might be praised as a hero or arrested for breaking the law. The laws vary from state to state regarding handguns.

In fact, handguns really only have one use, and that is to shoot other human beings. They are not suitable for hunting, because they are not accurate at longer distances. Handguns were not common when the Constitution was written, and pistols were used by officers in close combat, and for dueling. Both purposes mean that they were used to kill human beings. By comparison, long guns served many purposes. Early settlers often had to hunt for their food. To take their guns would mean that they would risk starvation. They were also used for defense, and early skirmishes of the Revolutionary War were fought by militiamen - private citizens who brought their own long guns to fight the British.

One of the strongest arguments against laws restricting handguns come from those who believe there should be no restrictions whatsoever on firearms. They argue that those who argue against handguns have a hidden agenda. They argue that people against handguns actually want to ban all guns for all purposes, including for target practice and hunting. They feel that they must fight restrictions on any guns to protect their Constitutional right to bear arms. However, this argument doesn't make sense to most people. Many people who are opposed to private individuals owning hand guns recognize the right of hunters to hunt, even if they don't agree with hunting themselves. However, those who object to any restrictions also point out that some people also want to ban assault weapons, which some also see as weapons really only intended to kill other humans.