Guns Under Fire: Something Needs to be Done “Do you believe in God?” This was the bone chilling question that many students heard as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stalked the eerie halls of Columbine High School gunning down their fellow classmates and teachers on April 20, 1999 (Johnson 4). There have been around forty incidents of school shootings in United States history. This does not take into consideration the number of murders, mass shootings, and massacres. There are those people who will look at situations such as this and say guns should be more regulated and taken care of appropriately so that we do not run into these kinds of accidents anymore. On the other hand you will find those who say you need guns to protect yourself from others and the government. In America’s history there have been many incidents with guns, but how do we solve this problem without taking away our Second Amendment right. The Second Amendment states that we have a right to bear arms; this is how it should stay, but issues such as the Gun Show Loophole should be expunged. The issue of gun control was in the thoughts of our founding fathers as they wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment states, “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.” What did the founding fathers have in mind when they wrote this? We cannot pinpoint exactly
Schimmer 2 what they meant when writing the Amendment simply because we were not there, but people have formulated their own thoughts and ideas. With the Second Amendment giving American citizens the right to bear arms, and with approximately fifty percent of Americans owning some form of a firearm, issues involving the ownership and possession of guns have led to heated debates in American society. The most notable among these debates is the issue of gun control. On the one hand, you have those who feel that some form of gun regulation is necessary in order to lower the level of gun related violence in the country. On the other hand, the opponents of gun control feel that it would be an infringement on their second amendment rights. Since it clearly states that Americans have the right to bear arms, then Americans should maintain that right: though there should be a few regulations in order to maintain control. The outcome and extent of gun control has strong political implications. It determines the meaning of the Second Amendment. Today, based on the number of crimes and violent acts committed with guns, society needs more gun control. The National Rifle Association, or NRA, is an organization that does not keep it hidden that they are advocates for guns. They do not want to remove guns or prevent citizen’s rights to carry-or RTC- that they believe was given to them in their Second Amendment rights. The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action–NRA-ILA- is the lobbying “arm” for the NRA. They have a theory of their own that has to do with American citizens RTC:
More RTC, less crime: Since 1991, when violent crime peaked in the U.S., 24 states have adopted “shall issue” laws, replacing laws that prohibited carrying or that issued carry permits on a very restrictive basis; many other federal, state, and local gun control
Schimmer 3 laws have been eliminated or made less restrictive; and the number of privately-owned guns has risen by about 100 million. The numbers of gun owners and firearms, RTC states, and people carrying firearms for protection have risen to all-time highs. Through 2010, the nation’s murder rate has decreased 52 percent to a 47-year low, and the total violent crime rate has decreased 48percent to a 37-year low. The FBI preliminarily has reported that violent crimes decreased another 6.4 percent in the first half of 2011, translating into a seven percent decrease in the total violent crime per capita rate. (qtd