You want to get an American citizen riled up? Tell him or her you think the government should be the only ones with guns. For second amendment supporters, those are fighting words. Many of us still remember the larger-than-life headlines involving the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, will forever be known as the infamous duo responsible for killing twelve classmates, one teacher and themselves. Since Columbine, school shootings have become an epidemic.
Our founders favored gun control because they were once defenseless against the tyranny of England’s King George III. Before the Revolutionary War, George once ruled his American colonists with an iron fist and sought to keep guns away from anyone considered a threat. However, George probably never figured that his American colonists would revolt against him; a grave error on his part.
Eventually, the American colonists got weapons and defeated the British army in the Revolutionary War. The founders decided they did not want the government to become powerful enough to create a dictatorship that could keep its citizens unarmed.
Hundreds of years later, our political leaders would have us believe that unarmed Americans will reduce gun violence and school shootings. So do today’s political figures know something unknown to George Washington or the other founding fathers? It’s unlikely. America already has hundreds of gun laws. Does anyone think more laws will reduce gun violence? No, of course not.
For example, consider prohibition. Most of us were not around during these days, but it was an early attempt by the government to shut down alcohol sales. The result was to create a black market for mobsters like Al Capone to sell bootleg liquor. Creating more gun laws will not do anything other than give some overeager political figure a platform to get votes. To handle a problem of this extent, we have to get to the root of the problem. So what causes anyone to pick up a gun and kill innocents?
My conclusion is that more gun laws are meaningless until you can legislate morality.
Our founders knew that Americans needed the second amendment. They wanted to keep a system of balance and checks and to keep our government from oppressing its people.
The second amendment protects our rights to carry a gun to protect ourselves and our families from foreign invaders, criminals, and a tyrannical government.