Running Head: GUN RESTRICTIONS 1

ARE THERE ANY LEGITIMATE RESTRICTIONS ON GUN OWNERSHIP?

Informal Logic 103
Instructor Sharon Jumper
October 14, 2013

GUN RESTRICTIONS 2

ARE THERE ANY LEGITIMATE RESTRICTIONS ON GUN OWNERSHIP?
Thomas Jefferson perceptively wrote: "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the Body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind . . . Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks” (Palzik, E. (2013).
When Scott A. Smith carried a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun, 2 loaded clips, and three knives to a movie theatre, Smith argued in court that the weapons he carried were for his and others protection. How many other people brought their gun to the theatre that didn’t get caught? Does going to the movies mean one might possibly be sitting in a cross-fire? Does waking down the street or going to school mean you are a target? These are questions that bring about the Federal government and the AFT to attempt passing laws and restrictions on gun ownership. Those restrictions are in place for the people’s protection. These restrictions vary in content and contain restrictions such as; who legally can own a gun, how they are able to obtain firearms, where and how they store them, and where and how they carry them.
There are those who would argue that the “right to bear arms” is a moral right as well as a constitutional right; “Some might claim that gun ownership is an essential element for the flourishing of a proper citizen” (LaFollette, H. 2000). Gun ownership in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon has risen 28% since last year. I believe this is a result of impending legislative gun restrictions along with the federal governments wanting to alter the 2nd Amendment and abolish gun ownership altogether.
GUN RESTRICTIONS 3
The 2nd Amendment is a right given to American citizens that is protected by the Constitution. The “right to bear arms” is specified in all but two states according to the NRA Fact sheet; Iowa and New Jersey have general provisions; “State provisions…….These two states have provisions that protect the right to defend life and liberty without adding the phrase; “right to bear arms”(2011).
Virginia, Alaska, and North Carolina are free states; “…well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state” (2011), and Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Idaho, and Colorado all have provisions in their ‘state constitutions’ which make it possible for that state, at any time, can withdraw the right to bear concealed weapons. In New York City, a registration system that was put into place in 1967 for long guns was used in the early 1990’s, to confiscate legally owned semiautomatics and shotguns. According to the Hamline Law Review; “The New York City Council banned firearms that had been classified by the city as ‘assault weapons’. The Commissioner’s testimony that no registered ‘assault weapon’ had been used in a violent crime in the city” (NRA/ILA Fact Sheet, 1999) had no effect
GUN RESTRICTIONS 4 on the Councils decision and 2,340 New Yorkers with registered firearms were notified that their weapons had to