Guns Are Good: Why Americans Should Never Lose Their Right to Bear Arms

The most controversial amendment that our forefathers have added to the Constitution is unquestionably the Second Amendment. However, I feel that the Second amendment is the most important one that we have and should not be controversial within our country at all. The Second Amendment states that we have the right to bear arms, and I believe that right should never be taken away. If you were to read the Second Amendment in the actual Bill of Rights it would say "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." This means that so long as the government gets to have guns, the people get to have them too in order to protect themselves.

Taking guns away from the people will ultimately make crime worse. Criminals don't care about gun laws; they are criminals and will be more likely to commit a crime if they know the person they are victimizing does not have a gun as well. If you were to think hypothetically, if a criminal were to have a choice whether to break into a house with a sign on the front lawn that says "we are armed" or a house with a sign on the front lawn that says "we are not armed", the criminal would be worry free to go into the house without the firearms. If the guns were taken away from the people, all the houses would hypothetically be victimized with the sign "we are not armed". To me this is a scary thought, because criminals can easily obtain guns within the black market. The black market is something that you don't need to know certain people to get into either. If our second amendment right was ever to be taken away, the demand for guns within the black market will be high. This would cause more people to sell guns (that they stole or smuggled) in alleys or side streets in order to make a nice profit. Taking away guns from the people does not stop criminals from obtaining them. In actuality, more guns equal less crime and fewer guns equal more crime. This concept is proven within the U.K. within the last decade. "Between 1998/1999 to 2007/2008 the rise of crime increased 89% after the government took guns away from its citizens. Lancashire suffered the single largest rise in gun crime, with recorded offences increasing from 50% in 1998/99 to 349% in 2007/08, an increase of 598 per cent. "( National Association for Gun Rights ) If my home was ever to be robbed, what would stop an illegally armed criminal from raping my mother or girlfriend? Stricter laws will only make it harder on law abiding citizens, and it is a bone chilling thought to imagine a situation with a criminal in the house without being able to stop him.

Having the choice to have a concealed gun in your house is the best way for the people to decide if they want to protect themselves and their family from criminals or other predators. Families that choose to have a gun will be protected, and people won't have to live in fear. When a victim has a gun, he could injure and stop the predator which would make the police officers job much easier when they reach the scene of the crime. Also if the victim is able to stop the criminal, it would stop the criminal from victimizing other people. Statistics also show that "As many as 200,000 women use a gun every year to defend themselves against sexual abuse" ( Gun Owners of America ). Guns could have stopped countless crimes from happening if the victim was armed and able to defend themselves. A firearm can save you from attacks by feral animals and or wildlife as well. You can deal with untamed animals or wildlife before you become injured or dinner! Theodore Roosevelt once said " No greater wrong can ever be done than to put a good man at the mercy of a bad, while telling him not to defend himself or his fellows; in no way can the success of evil be made surer or quicker" (Tkdtutor).

In reality, anti-gun supporters are way too paranoid about guns. "Twice as many children are killed playing football in school than are murdered by guns. In a recent three year period, twice as many football players died from hits to the head, heat stroke, etc. (45), as compared with students who were murdered by firearms (22) during that same time period. "(Gun Owners Of America) Guns in America had increased by almost 40% throughout the 90's decade. With more guns, less crime has been committed and proven within these ten years. The murder rate decreased by almost 40% and the accidental gun deaths in the home also decreased by almost 40%. ( Gun Owners of America ) There are countless amounts of statistics that prove that guns are nowhere near the leading cause of death in innocent people in America. In actuality these numbers again prove that our forefathers know so much more than we do and they are always right.

When dealing with firearms, great power comes with great responsibility. If a person knows how to use a gun safely and knows when you are justified in using it, owning a gun is reasonable. The person must safeguard it against unauthorized use by locking it in a secure safe. The gun must be kept in proper order and the person must know where and where not they are allowed to carry it. If a person knows how to use the gun, the responsibilities in having a gun, has no criminal record, and practices on the shooting range from time to time, I personally do not feel more scared in that person having a gun than a police officer that has a gun.



I believe that everyone should be able to own a concealed weapon at home, in the car, or in the workplace (if they are the owner) because these are the places where we are not protected and are vulnerable. However I feel that a gun is should not be a necessity anywhere else. Although guns are the best way to protect ourselves, it would be hard to distinguish the good from the criminals if everyone had a gun in their holster. It could lead to people going over the line when being put in a situation and it would lead to more innocent casualties. Although there would be much less pickpockets and thieves on the street, there would be more dead criminals who were only doing a minor crime and did not want anyone to get seriously injured. Guns are good, but it would make our social life more intimidating and scary if guns were carried by people on the streets.

No matter where you live in the country, it is always unsafe without a gun. People with big houses where I grew up in Long Island, New York were frequently victimized by criminals. I never heard of someone that was victimized that had a firearm in the house. I realized that this was because 9 out of 10 times, criminals know the person that they are robbing and they know that they will not be shot at if they break into that person's house. If they knew that the person they were robbing did have a gun, the odds of them having the guts to commit this crime are very unlikely. I now live in Buffalo, New York which is known for its high levels of poverty. A high level of poverty also corresponds to high levels of crime. A few of my peers have been put in terrifying situations when they were face to face with an armed criminal and were forced to obey to them. Luckily, they were not hurt and only lost their possessions instead of their lives. However, this proves that if you are living in an area of wealth or an area of poverty you still risk being a victim.

Sometimes there is a need to come to common ground about gun control and how it is regulated. I believe that people should have a firearm for their own protection when they are 18 and older, however I feel it is unnecessary to have any gun that isn't a single fire hand gun or shotgun. Machine gun pistols and heavy weapons are good because they show intimidation to a criminal, but the purpose of these heavy firearms is to be used in combat which would cause heavy damage. It was not meant to be used for protection against thieves. An Ak-47 is not needed to prevent you from losing your life, or to make someone scared enough to try to invade your property. A handgun or shotgun is safer for the ordinary citizen to use and it will be intimidating enough to the criminal. Unless there is a war within the country, we shouldn't be expecting a gun fight against enemy, so I feel that heavy weapons should never be given to ordinary citizens. If a machine gun was fired at a criminal it can do massive damage to your own property and may hurt other innocent people around the crime scene. If a machine gun of an innocent person fell into the hands of a bad person, he could massacre hundreds of people before even being stopped. Overall it would be worse if people were able to use such heavy firearms such as that, even police officers.

When I went to Colombia to visit my family in the summer of 2010, I arrived in the capital city of Bogota. As I took a cab to the hotel that I was going to stay at during the first day of my trip, and I passed by the embassy of Bogota, Colombia, where the ambassadors from other countries meet. Along the streets were soldiers in camouflage outfits with M16's (a heavy submachine gun). As I saw these soldiers holding these guns I felt unsettled and uncomfortable. I knew they had heavy firearms to make the ambassadors feel safe; however at first I did not feel that it was necessary to have such heavy arms on the highly populated city streets with thousands of citizens walking around. However if an attack on the embassy were to ever happen, the soldiers are going to have an upper hand with such high powered weapons. This is why an attack may never happen and is why ambassadors feel safe going to the embassy in Bogota, Colombia. Depending on where you live, the situation is always different, and in Colombia it is the best idea for these soldiers to be carrying these weapons on the streets 2 blocks each direction around the embassy.

The safest place to go to in the world is Switzerland. The gun crime rate is as close to zero as you can get because they don't even bother taking statistics since gun crimes are extremely rare. In Switzerland, men are supposed to have some military experience, and the government hands out guns to citizens in about every household. With 6 million people, there are 2 million guns distributed to families including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols (BBC). There is rare to find any violence there and the country is rich and prospering with happy citizens. Although the United States have a different scenario than Switzerland, we should learn by looking at the difference between the two extremes that happened in the U.K. and Switzerland. When guns were taken away from all citizens in the U.K. guns crime rates skyrocketed, when submachine guns and pistols were given to everyone in Switzerland, gun crime rates are almost zero.

I believe that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it. It is sad that bad people use guns to commit crimes, but the crime rate will only increase if guns are taken away from the innocent. It is scary to think of what would happen if we were to be invaded by another country after the government had taken away our second amendment rights. Almost none of us would be trained to use a gun and wouldn't have any because we were never allowed to use them in the first place. Allowing the citizens to bear arms is the only reason we won our independence and is the only reason any of us are Americans to begin with. I would feel safe living in the majority of places in America today, but if guns were only being used by the cops and criminals I would be terrified to live anywhere unless I was a cop or a criminal. No matter what I do in my lifetime, I would be no match face to face with a criminal with a gun if I was forced by the government to protect myself empty-handed. The reason our forefathers have listed the right bear arms 2^nd before the rest of the amendments, is because of its importance and necessity for protection of everyday American people. The balance of power is the scale of peace. It is our right to protect ourselves, and hopefully that right will never be taken away from us.

Works Cited

"BBC News | EUROPE | Switzerland and the Gun." BBC News - Home. 27 Sept. 2001. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. .

"Famous Quotations About Self-Defense (P2)." TKDTutor: Your Source for Taekwondo and Martial Arts Information. Web. 08 May 2011. .

Gun Owners Foundation. "GUN CONTROL FACT-SHEET (2004) - Gun Owners Of America." Gun Owners of America - Gun Owners Of America. 18 Sept. 2008. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .

UK Daily Mail:. "UK Shows That Gun Control Doesn't Work | National Association for Gun Rights." 21 Dec. 2009. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. .