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Wyatt Vitarelli

Aughenbaugh

English 12

3 February 2017

Reasons to Support Second Amendment Rights

Imagine you are at home and your children are sound asleep in their room. While getting

ready for bed you hear a noise downstairs. You go down to see an armed robber and realize you

must protect your home. Do you have time to call 911 or should you use your own weapon to

remove the intruder from your home? On average it takes about 11 minutes for a first responder

to get to your home when it only takes seconds for you to get to your own firearm and be ready

to defend your home and family. If it wasn't for the second amendment and your right to bear

arms, you could be in this situation without almost any form of defense. And don't think that just

because owning firearms would be illegal criminals would just give them up as well. Gun laws

would take guns from the people that need them for defence not the people using them to commit

crimes. Second amendment rights should be kept the way they are because not only has it been

stated by the supreme court that it is in the constitution and guns have been proved to be a large

help in preventing and stopping crime.

The supreme court supports the right to bear arms as a civilian. The legal scholar Sanford

Levinson, a self-described "card-carrying member of the ACLU [American Civil Liberties

Union]," has studied the second amendment and concluded that the Founding Fathers did mean

to insure that law-abiding individual citizens would have the right to own and keep firearms

untroubled by the state, for they recognized the people as an arm of government. He says:

"Arguments on behalf of a 'strong' second amendment are stronger than many of us might wish
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to be the case." Also the supreme court has ruled for the first time that the Second Amendment

protects an individual right to bear arms. Another quote from the supreme court is "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."

Also a ban on assault rifles will do little to stop international crimes. Another ban on assault

weapons would not only do very little to unarm Mexican drug cartels, but it would also be the

first sacrifice of constitutional rights for the American people. The reason, then it will do very

little to stop the cartels from getting these weapons is that there are about 100 million AK-47

assault rifles on the market today and many more being produced in factories like a new one in

Venezuela.

Over the past 20 years gun sales have been much higher than ever before During that time

gun related homicides have dropped thirty nine percent and others gun related crimes of dropped

about sixty nine percent. Also looking at the nine European countries with the lowest gun

ownership rates there combined murder rate is three times that of the nine highest gun owning

countries in Europe.

As seen over the past 50 years, almost every shooting has happened in a state with strict gun

laws. Wyoming, for instance, has a high suicide rate, but a low homicide rate. The District of

Columbia, by contrast, has a low suicide rate, but a high homicide rate. The District of

Columbia has some of the most strict gun laws in the country, but in comparison to Wyoming a

state with few gun laws the murder rate is much higher. Also cities with strict gun laws such as

Chicago tend to have the highest violent crime rate in the country. Since tightening up gun laws

the murder rate in Chicago has gone up around 17 percent. The city is considered the deadliest

global city this may seem crazy, but the amount of murders there in 2012 almost matched the of
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japan as a country. After the city of Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring every home to

have a gun, the crime rate dropped by more than 50 percent over the course of the next 23 years

and there was an 89% decline in burglary. Also gun carrying citizens uses their firearms about

2.5 million times a year.

The U.S is also number one in the world for gun ownership, but only 28th in the world for a

murder rate (per 100,000 people). The violent crime rate in the United States actually fell from

757.7 per 100,000 in 1992 to 386.3 per 100,000 in 2011. During that same time period, the

murder rate fell from 9.3 per 100,000 to 4.7 per 100,000.

Guns are actually used more to protect and prevent crime than they are to commit crimes.

Overall, guns in the United States are used 80 times more often to prevent crime than they are to

take lives. Also many men and women use firearms to protect themselves from

attackers.Approximately 200,000 women in the United States use guns to protect themselves

against sexual crime every single year. Another example of this is shown on February 12, 2007,

when a lone gunman opened fire in Trolley Square shopping mall, killing five when an off duty

police officer Kenneth Hammond of the Ogden City Police Department he drew his weapon and

confronted the gunman he and other on duty officers finally pinned him down it was said that if

it wasn't for him the situation could have been much worse.

Other countries with more strict gun laws such as the UK have much higher violent crime

rates. .The UK has approximately 125 percent more rape victims per 100,000 people each year

than the United States.As Well as approximately 133 percent more assault victims per 100,000

people each year than the United States does. The UK also has the 4th highest burglary rate in

the EU and second overall highest crime rate. Also Australia was a part of a gun ban and soon

after it was instated murder rates went up nineteen percent and armed robbery rates rocketed by
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sixty nine percent. As said in an article i read at Town hall.com the way to increase safety is not

to take away the rights of responsible gun owners, including those wishing to protect themselves

and their loved ones. Instead, by ensuring that those who obey the law can remain the first line of

defense against violence, America will become better equipped to handle potential tragedies as

they arise.

Giving up our fundamental rights as stated in the constitution would an awful idea just to get

a false sense of security. Gun owners of America says that over 170 million people have been

killed by their own governments prior to this they were disarmed. Now I am not saying that the

united states government is going to kill its own citizens, but the people can't let their rights be

taken for the possibility of a very uncertain future.

Some may argue that the second amendment was made when all there were where muskets,

and that civilians don't need assault rifles, but the hole in that is that's what the military had as

well. Kurt Schlichter, a Los Angeles trial attorney, recently-retired U.S. Army Infantry colonel

said, referring to the second amendment. It ensures that well remain armed against tyrants with

weapons of contemporary military utility. Today that means AR-15s, AKMs, and yes, even real

machine guns. In decades to come, that could mean plasma cannons and man-portable rail guns.

It was never meant to apply to just muskets.

Gun law activists may argue that most large murders in the use are performed by gunman, but

in many more crimes have been stopped or deaths have been kept to a minimum by gun carrying

citizens. They also may say that guns and suicide rates are much too high, but that is not at the

fault of the gun it is the fault of the owner not keeping the firearm safely locked in a case or safe.

Another argument is accidental deaths, but those are caused by the ignorance of the person
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wielding the weapon and not using it properly. Yes, I do agree that gun screening should include

a mental health test instead of just a background test I do not feel we should all have to give up

our rights for those few individuals who will do anything bad when there are many many more

who would use their firearms to protect those around them.

In conclusion the American people support their second amendment rights. They are

extremely important not only for gun owners, but for those who do not want to be trampled by

their own government. The people can't give up any of their rights for a false sense of security.

One can use the faulty logic that if firearms become illegal criminals will give them as willingly

as as law abiding citizens so it is the job of the people to keep themselves and others safe by

supporting the second amendment.

Works Cited

18 Little-Known Gun Facts That Prove That Guns Make Us Safer. Infowars. Infowars.com, 12

Aug. 2013. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.

Homsher, Deborah. Overview: The Second Amendment and Gun Control. Guns and Violence.

Ed.

Laura K. Egendorf. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Current Controversies. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.

Mauro, Tony. The Supreme Court Supports an Individual's Right to Bear Arms. Is Gun

Ownership a

Right? Ed. Kelly Doyle. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. At Issue. Rpt. from

Amendment

High Court: 2nd Amendment Protects Individual Right. The Legal Intelligencer (27 June

2008).

Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 11 Jan. 2017

Warrick, Steven. The Assault Weapons Ban Should Not Be Reinstated. Gun Violence. Ed.

Louise

Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from Reinstating

Automatic

Weapon Ban Would Be Ineffective. Daily Utah Chronicle 10 Apr. 2009. Opposing

Viewpoints
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in Context. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.

John Hawkins - http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/02/02/10-stories-that-

prove-guns-save-lives-n1503549

Here's How Long on Average It Takes for Police to Respond to a 911 Call
Kara Pendleton - http://ijr.com/2016/03/554002-heres-how-long-on-average-it-takes-for-police-to-

respond-to-a-911-call/