Peter Fernandez
Mr.Parsons
English 1A
21 September 2013 Staying Protected
As American citizens, we have been exposed to all these drastic tragedies that have been occurring and displayed on the media. Which have made a lot of people wonder if the second amendment should still apply or create strict regulations and laws on owning a gun. The founders of this country established these freedoms because they had previously lived in countries where the people did not have as many rights. The Second Amendment to the Constitution, which proclaims "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." But over the years various laws and regulations have infringed upon this right. The reasons for these laws are to get the guns that cause crime and injuries off the streets. But most of these laws have only prevented the common citizen from acquiring a firearm. There should be some regulation with regard to who can own a gun, but we need to ensure that this regulation is done in a fair and practical manner. The best argument for the protection of the right to possess arms is the Second Amendment. The purpose of the amendment, and the entire Constitution, is to establish certain rights that cannot be abolished or changed by our government. I support the second amendment and think it should stay the way it is , and have four reasons why I do so.
First, it’s perfectly reasonable for someone to have a gun to protect themselves or their family from danger. That’s why the Second Amendment is very important. In a society where population is increasing and as well as the crime rate, I feel that owning a gun and being able to protect yourself and your family is not only a privilege but our right as a American citizen. In the pursuit of happiness, being safe can accommodate that. What would you do if god forbid, a burglar or thief enters your home, and because of new gun policies and regulations your only defense mechanism is contacting the authorities? By the time the authorities arrive, will it be soon enough? This is not only a obvious reason why the second amendment is needed but a very important one. We never know what individuals are planning or going through especially with some of these psychos who ironically always seem to have mental issues.
This is why I also believe that instead of confiscating every Americans weapon, or taking the right to bear arms to law abiding citizens. We would be much better off focusing on improvements we can make in identifying and treating mental illness; the common factor in all these incidents and ensuring that disqualifying records make it into the database used for background checks. an analysis of this and other shootings reveals several common threads between many perpetrators of rampage killings. Diagnoses are made more difficult by the fact that the killers in many of the rampages are often killed themselves, but in many cases, the killer had been diagnosed with some form of mental illness or can plausibly be considered to have an undiagnosed mental illness. Other factors, such as video games, movies, or broken families are also common factors. This is why I believe that all the decisions that these “bad guys” do should not affect all the “good guys”.
Thirdly, simply imagine, the “good guys” with nothing to protect themselves from the “bad guys” who regardless if a new law or not passes, they will still have ways to obtain these weapons. Guns have become so prevalent in our nation that it would be near impossible to get completely rid of them. People don’t use guns strictly for war or murdering. There are people out there who use guns to hunt, or perhaps use guns to go to the shooting range, some collect them, etc. These individuals fall under the good guy category generally speaking. There is no way that they can ever get rid of them. The