Gun Control: an Infringement on Our Rights

The second amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees U.S. citizens the right to bear arms. Many people exercise this right, whether it is for sporting purposes or personal protection. Others choose not to have anything at all to do with guns. It doesn't matter which group you align with; gun usage is a personal choice and no one should force you to use one or not. The focus of this essay is the “or not” part. There are some people who think just because they don't like guns, no one else should be allowed to have one. If this theory were to be carried out, many people's lives would change drastically and complete chaos would ensue. Strict gun control laws are more of a nuisance than deterrents of crime. The crazy murderers and the obsessive stockpilers are always going to have guns no matter how harsh laws become. More gun usage could actually prevent crimes instead of encourage them. Lastly, guns are part of many people's customs and traditions, and making them harder to obtain will only anger them.

Most gun control laws consist of a rigorous background check that prevents past criminals from obtaining weapons. They also prevent weapons from being sold during certain hours of the day, and ban automatic weapons that are considered unnecessary. The laws also might include a waiting period for certain hand guns so spur of the moment would-be-killers have time to cool down. For the most part, these regulations are fine. Many of them can help fight crime by preventing criminals from getting easy access to arms. But how far is too far? If the government makes laws that ban the sales of weapons to criminals, what is the definition of a criminal? Right now it prevents released felons

like armed robbers and murderers from buying guns. But before too long this could develop into preventing people who have had parking violations and speeding tickets from buying guns, because some statistic somewhere said they are more likely to abuse guns. The laws could go from banning automatic weapons because they aren't necessary, to banning guns that can fire more than one round, to banning guns altogether. As for the waiting period, one to two days is fine, but the people who want to commit crime are either going to wait it out or break in somewhere else to steal a gun. The crazy people will always have guns. The stricter these laws become, the more of a pain and a hassle it becomes for a law-abiding citizen to obtain one.

If it becomes harder to buy a gun, more crime will be committed by people who avoid the legal way and its nuisances, and instead steal guns or engage in illegal arms sales. It also works the other way. If everyone in the country had a gun, most criminals would be too frightened to try anything. Would you hold up a bank if you knew that each teller has a semi-automatic ten gauge shotgun? Same goes for school shootings. If every teacher had a pistol, these massacres on the news wouldn't exist.

Guns are an American tradition. You may automatically think of a cowboy, but it's more than that. A great percentage of people across the nation enjoy the sport of hunting. Some people just like to shoot targets for fun or for competition. Others are antique gun collectors. If strict gun control laws were to make it harder for these people to get guns, or if the laws were to go as far as taking the guns away from them, you may have a riot on your hands; probably a violent one with guns.

With all of this being said, it is important to remember, no matter how cliché it sounds, guns don't kill people, bullets do. But before you go trying to regulate the sales of bullets, you must also remember that a gun with a bullet in the chamber can sit in the center of a crowded room and still not kill anyone. That gun must be picked up, aimed at someone, the safety taken off, and the trigger pulled. People kill people. If you were to destroy every gun in the world, and make it impossible to create any more, there would still be murder: Strangulation, stabbing, drowning, and bludgeoning, just to name a few. The only way to stop murder is to put everyone in a straightjacket. Arms would be completely controlled. So forget strict gun control laws. They're just a nuisance. Making it harder only hurts the good citizens, crime could be prevented if there were more guns, and making stricter laws destroys American tradition.