Beverly Eacho
Ashley Strong-Green
English 110

Gun Rights Today, the American government believes that armed citizens are a threat to a peaceful society. President Obama and the Democratic Party seem to want to disarm the entire American population. They support the idea that a police state and the government will protect all citizens from every threat. While this is a noble idea; the reality is that citizens are the best judge of their safety in the face of a threat. From the very beginning of the American Experiment that is democracy, the individual citizen has been granted the enalible right to bear arms. The success of the Revolutionary War would not have been possible if the citizens did not have arms. And this, I believe; is the root of the current government’s attempt to disarm the citizens.
Our government would have us believe that the police force and the military will protect everyone from all threats domestic and foreign. While the individual police officer or soldier is a true patriotic American, they still follow the orders and policies of the government. Who will they protect when the will of the people and the will of the government do not agree? This is the same dilemma that the founding fathers of America sought to resolve with the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. The Second Amendment protects the right of the individual to keep and bear arm, not merely collective militias, while also ruling that the right is not unlimited and does not prohibit all regulation of either firearms or similar devices. State and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing this right per the incorporation of the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, as part of the first ten amendments composing the Bill of Rights.
The Constitution of the United States of America is a living, document that guarantees the citizens of its nation certain unalienable rights. Among those rights is the Second Amendment which guarantees citizens the right to bear arms. This right was added to the Constitution to protect its citizens from those who would do them harm; be it other citizens, a militia, or even a tyrannical government. This amendment has seemingly always been under heavy "fire" from those who feel our nation should not allow ordinary people­ those not in the employ of the government or in a law enforcement capacity­ to own a firearm for any reason.
The Second Amendment reads thusly: "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." "The Second Amendment was based partially on the right to keep and bear arms in English common law and was influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689. Sir William Blackstone described this right as an auxiliary right, supporting the natural rights of self-defense, resistance to oppression, and the civic duty to act in concert in defense of the state" (Wikipedia).
Our forefathers, who had been oppressed by the British government and knew very well how it was to live under such tyranny, wanted airtight laws to be established in order to prevent any further oppression. As the drafters of the the law of the "New World", they made certain to include laws about citizens being able to protect themselves. This amendment tells us that we have the right to defend ourselves against those soldiers who would come to our door to take our guns.
Our society says we should hand over our weapons to those who would take them by force. The rights of each individual citizen would be infringed upon if our current presidential administration could have its way. They would tell us to lay down our arms and bow to their will. Stop fighting and do as they say. Our Constitution says we don't have to. The rights of the individual must be considered over society's "needs". Society is wrong to ask this of us, and is