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.

America has a long history of guns.  The 2^nd Amendment is where it all started.

It has been argued that the 2nd Amendment applies to all time periods, regardless of what types of firearms are available.  Others believe that the amendment is outdated and only applied to the people of America when muskets were around.

To understand the 2^nd Amendment correctly, one has to understand the legislators who wrote it.

At the time the Bill of Rights was established, America was still new nation.  The founders and writers of the Constitution wanted America to remain free from all other nations, and they wanted the people to remain free from their own government.  Many people were afraid that the national government would eventually become too powerful and jeopardize the freedom of the people.  Hence, the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, to protect the rights of the people. The 2^nd Amendment was included for good reason; if the government became tyrannical, there was always a last resort.

With this in mind, let us look at what the FBI says about crime in America today.

There were 8,500 murders committed with firearms in America in 2011.  That is an incredible amount; clearly something needs to be done about it.

Many people believe that an assault weapons ban that prohibits all guns from having more than ten bullets as well as assault style rifles is one way to combat crime.  America has tried this before, from 1994-2004.  Crime decreased significantly during that time period.  However, if you’re reasonably intelligent, you will look and the crime trends outside of the ban as well. Look for yourself at the graphs.

Crime was decreasing before the ban, and it continued to decrease after the ban.  It is logical to assume that since crime rates were falling before, during, and after the ban, the ban did not cause a decrease in crime.   No one will ever know for sure, but it appears that crime would have continued to decrease even if the ban had never been implemented.

Many people, though, still want to pass an assault weapons ban again.  This could be because they are afraid of “military-style assault weapons.”

Look at the pictures above. Both of the guns pictured above are Colt M4s. There is one massive difference between them though: one can fire 13 rounds per second, and the other can only fire one shot per trigger pull. 

The misconception that civilians can obtain automatic assault rifles is a very dangerous one.  The only type of firearm that a civilian is allowed to own is a semi-automatic weapon, with only one shot per trigger pull.

According to the FBI though, only 323 of all 2011 murders were committed with rifles.  A person is more than twice as likely to get beaten to death by hands and feet than murdered by a rifle, and more than five times as likely to get murdered with a cutting instrument than a rifle.

So what’s the big hype about rifles?  They are the ones that end up on TV, so the public automatically considers them more dangerous than other types of firearms.  Just as people are scared to fly after they see a plane crash on TV, people are afraid of assault style rifles after they are displayed on TV in connection to shootings.

What about mass shootings? Recently, murderous psychopaths have chosen semi-automatic rifles to carry out mass murders.  While it is terrible that mass shootings happen, banning semi-automatic rifles isn’t going to stop them.  If a person wants to hurt others, he or she will always be able to find a way.  Considering there are already more than 300 million guns in the U.S., it will never be hard for someone to get a gun, even they get it illegally.  Even if they couldn’t get a gun, deranged individuals could use other weapons, create chemical weapons, or even bombs. 

The public needs to realize that it is people who commit crimes and mass shootings, not guns.  It is easy to blame crime on guns.  What’s easy though isn’t always best. In America, we have a people problem, not a gun problem.  It may be hard, but we have to change our culture and look seriously into mental illness to help combat crime and future mass shootings.

If we were to ban all guns, it would only prevent the law-abiding citizens of America from getting guns for lawful purposes, such as defending themselves.  Just think, even though it may seem crazy to some readers, what if the teachers at Sandy Hook all had firearms?  Maybe instead of the principal running towards the gunman and getting killed, he could have taken action against the gunman.  Maybe instead of teachers trying to defend their kids by putting themselves in front of the kids, they could have actually fought back against evil.  Maybe there would be more children alive today.

To begin to solve our nation’s violence and crime problem, we need to change our culture.  This ultimately rests on the shoulders of parents since culture cannot be legislated.

We can also vastly improve our treatment of the mentally ill and the National Instant Background Check System to help prevent criminals from getting guns (even though they usually get them illegally). We can also make the consequences harsher for committing a crime with a gun, helping to keep violent offenders off the streets.

People of America: Don’t give up your right to defend your freedom and your life.  Don’t take away something that isn’t the cause of crime.  Don’t be a victim. 

Please, support gun rights.