Gun Control

Gun control has been a controversial issue for years in the United States. Some say that with stricter gun control laws there will be less crime. Others disagree stating that there would not be less crime with stricter gun control laws, and that it is our constitutional right as Americans to keep and bear arms. But which party is correct? Too much gun control would impose on our rights as a free people and not necessarily result in the desired outcome. But if there were too little gun control and anyone could carry a gun, things also would not pan out the way that they should. Recognizing both sides, there should not be more gun control laws because they impose on our constitutional rights; they decrease the safety of our families, schools, and society; and they focus on the wrong problem which is not the guns, but the people carrying them. Recognizing that the main priority is to keep America safe, it is vital that we do not undermine our constitutional right to carry a gun. The Second Amendment states, “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.” Many Americans do accept our constitutional right to own guns for self defense, hunting, shooting, or collecting (Giffords and Schneiderman). But the Founding Fathers did not just make the Second Amendment so that people could go shoot a deer, access to firearms also serves as a noteworthy check on the government (Nicas and Palazzolo).
Already, the government is making it unnecessarily hard for anyone to own a gun. In New York, John Stossel had to fill out a seventeen page form in which he not only had to know about guns, but also the definitions of other weapons such as a switchblade knife, a gravity knife, a kung fu star, etc. It took hours to fill out and was often hard to understand. Then after he was done he had to go, in person, to police headquarters where they fingerprinted him, asked him the reasons why