Two hundred fifty years ago, the founding fathers wrote the Second Amendment, stating “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to bear arms, shall not be infringed.” However, the very people who wrote the Second Amendment could not have anticipated the damage resulting from it.
According to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, the purpose of the Second Amendment is to allow citizens to defend themselves and band together to form militias in case a foreign country invades the United States.
Many who defend the Second Amendment will cite this need to protect themselves. According to Pew Research, 48% of all gun owners said they owned a gun for protection.
These people fail to consider that guns are now being used to attack people instead of defending them. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 109 mass shootings in 2023 as of March 13, 2023. But that’s not the only worrying statistic: according to Pew Research, the number of active shooter incidents has risen exponentially in the last 20 years.
Those who own guns on the basis of defending themselves display a lot of concern over firearm attacks from others. However, if the possession of guns isn’t allowed in the first place, the threat of mass shooters shouldn’t be a problem.
Additionally, there is not much of a need to form militias now. The United States has an army that consists of 1.4 million active personnel and billions in funding for the United States Department of Defense. This army is far more powerful and organized than any militia that people could form.
Others argue that the best way to stop a gun attack is with guns, which is why people need to stockpile guns in case of an attack.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
However, LaPierre’s claim is not well-founded in actuality. In a Harvard study on gun threats and self-defense, victims use guns in under 1% of crimes. Furthermore, people often use guns as a means of imitation, rather than defense. In reality, fear should come from the use of a gun as a weapon, rather than in self-defense.
The solution lies in taking away the ability to attack with guns in the first place. The United States by far is the country with the most guns and as a result, the country with the most gun violence. Providing background checks and more gun control will prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands.
Some say that guns are not the problem regarding mass shootings. It is the people that kill others in these events, not the guns, and the solution lies in preventing the people from committing such violent acts in the first place.
However, these attacks still happen worldwide regardless of what law enforcement does to prevent these attacks. In other countries, the perpetrators don’t wield guns because of stricter gun control laws. Therefore, foreign countries with more gun control have less gun violence.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 76% of homicides in the Americas resulted from firearms. On the other hand, 21% of homicides in Europe resulted from firearms. The attackers in Europe mainly resorted to using sharp objects and knives.
A gun has so much more potential to kill than a knife. One can kill multiple people from a distance with a click of a gun, whereas knives have to be used in close contact where people can run away, resulting in less death. The average person should not be able to kill at such a rapid rate, and that possibility should be prevented by the government, as seen in other countries.
The Second Amendment is not only outdated but is also in need of reform. There should be stricter restrictions on who can own a gun or eliminate the Second Amendment altogether. The average person should not be able to wield a firearm in the context of how powerful modern guns are.
The guns of 2023 are far more powerful than those of 1790, and an average person can wield one of these guns and devastate an entire community. Mass shootings where guns are being used to attack instead of defend are becoming far too familiar. Having more guns will only lead to more violence, death, and suffering.
