As we all know, conservatives and liberals have very different views about America. Sometimes, this boils down to views about the US constitution. One of the most highly debated parts of the constitution is the 2nd amendment. As most Americans know, the 2nd amendment gives us the right to bear arms. The left, for some reason, can’t comprehend this even though it’s fairly simple to understand, or they just don’t want to understand. As a result of this, the 2nd amendment became a controversial topic to talk about, with the right supporting it, and the left being against it. Some on the left believe that the 2nd amendment pertains to the national guard, and not the individual right to own firearms. This of course is completely false and I’ll explain why.

To start with, let’s go back to the revolutionary war. There was conflict between the people and the British government at the time before the war started. To keep it simple, basically Great Britain was very corrupt at the time and the people got tired of it. On March 7, 1770 during a mob on the streets of Boston British soldiers fired into the crowd, 7 civilians were killed. This massacre caused a chain reaction that led to the signing of the declaration of independence on July 4, 1776, and soon after, the revolutionary war. As we all know, the colonists won the war, and the rest is history. None of that would have been possible, if the civilians weren’t able to obtain firearms to fight back, and the founding fathers recognized this. Obviously, the founders wanted us to be able to fight off government tyranny and defend ourselves, this is exactly why the 2nd amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791 along with other 9 amendments. As quoted by George Washington “When the government takes away citizens’ right to bear arms, it becomes citizens duty to take away government’s right to govern”. So, the left saying that the founders didn’t support our individual right to keep and bear arms is completely asinine and they know this. That’s not the only stupid argument the left makes against gun rights.

Now let’s jump back to present time. Another argument the left uses against guns is as you guessed, firearm deaths. According to the CDC, roughly around 33,600 people are killed by firearms a year and the fraction is about 10.5 out of a 100,000 population. Now, is it bad that people are killed by firearms, absolutely, but to suggest that the US has a major gun problem and that gun ownership needs to be restricted is just wrong. One of the biggest weapons the left uses against gun ownership is mass shootings. We all can agree that mass shootings are absolutely horrible and we want them to not happen anymore. The best way to do this is to allow law abiding citizens to own firearms to protect themselves and it has worked. In fact, the States with the least strict gun laws have fewer crime rates and states with the strictest gun laws has more crime. Now, this is where the left’s arguments get dumb. In a lot of these mass shootings AR 15 rifles are used, and left uses this to target this particular rifle. However, according to a article by New York Times using FBI crime statistics, A.R 15s are used in only 2 percent of yearly gun homicides and over 80 percent are done by handguns. The argument I generally use against leftist who want to ban A.R 15s is this, I tell them that statistically the majority of gun deaths are committed by handguns and I ask why don’t you advocate for a ban on handguns? I have yet to received an answer.

The number one reason why people want to own firearms, is to protect themselves and others from things like this. We saw this in the latest mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas. On November 5th, 2017 a man named Devin Patrick Kelley, who wasn’t supposed to be able to purchase the firearms, but thanks to the failure of the government his criminal history was never entered into the computer and when they ran a background check they found nothing, went into a church and shot and killed 26 people and injured 20 more. It would have been more if it wasn’t for a man named Stephen Willeford. Stephen, who was a former NRA instructor and lifetime NRA member, grabbed his AR 15 and exchanged fire with him and ultimately killing him. This is exactly why we have the 2nd amendment.

In the end, the left will not win on this issue simply because the majority of people who own firearms don’t support stricter laws. My hope is that President Trump will push for the national concealed carry act and make firearms accessible to all law abiding citizens.

Sources

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/05/us/texas-church-shooting-resident-action/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/05/mass-shooting-reported-at-texas-sutherland-springs-church.html

http://www.bostonmassacre.net/facts-and-numbers.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/sunday-review/the-assault-weapon-myth.html?referer=https://www.google.com/