Guns Dont Kill People

1706 Words7 Pages
Fact: Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Granted guns make it easier but no different than a car, a knife, or some other means that is the conscious choice by the decision maker. The key issues for consideration are the legal precedence, the evolution of firearms, society’s perspective and their application in today’s modern American culture. The United States of America was founded on the principal of being a sovereign nation with the ability to protect itself from others and also from within. In order to understand the implications of instituting a nationwide ban on firearms, one must understand the past, consider the actions of the present and predict the outcomes of the future. In 1791, the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified and stated 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." This statement has been debated for the past few decades by legal experts and ban activists with fairly little action due to the Supreme Court’s interpretation that it protects an individual's right to have guns rather than that of an organized para-military force. Proponents of the Second Amendment, such as the National Rifle Association, argue that the right to bear arms is a freedom similar to other freedoms granted under the Bill of Rights, like free speech and press. Because of this, gun rights advocates protest individual state laws by citing the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." In the recent U.S.
Open Document