Defending our Second Amendment

A man walks through a school full of children and teachers with a jet black handgun concealed on his hip. The man patrols the halls shouting orders of “In there!” and “Get Down!” as children rush past, avoiding eye contact and scurrying into their classrooms and hiding from the terror that ensues. Rapid gunfire rings out followed by screams of horror and agony echoing down the corridor. The man, dressed in a crisp white polo and trousers, reaches to his hip and smoothly draws his trusted handgun from its’ home. The hallway suddenly becomes engulfed with darkness as a second person comes running around the corner shouting and firing wildly towards the man in white. With each gunshot comes a blinding flash of light and a deafening explosion echoing throughout the building. Quickly, the man draws his weapon but it seems to be too late, an invisible force and pain erupting from his left shoulder cause the man to stumble backwards and induces terror. Bewildered, weak, and desperate the man squeezes off two rounds in the direction of his assailant and the school falls silent. The world seems to spin as the man collapses to the floor in a pool of crimson and his gun skitters across the floor, all sounds cease except the shallow breathing of the school principal, the man in white. A bullet wound in his left shoulder just inches away from his heart is the source of the crimson river pooling on the floor. Paramedics surround the principal, administering first aid and working to stop the bleeding from his shoulder while others check on the children. Bandaged, strapped, and on a gurney the man looks back towards the school building as he is wheeled out to take one last glance at a sign posted in the school yard.

“We proudly train our staff the use firearms for the protection of our children.”

-Sandy Hook Elementary

You have most likely realized the preceding was a fictitious scenario inspired by recent events in Newtown Connecticut, however that tragedy could have been ended quickly and many lives could have been spared if teachers were allowed to carry firearms on their person during school hours. Dictionary.com defines a firearm, or gun, as “a small arms weapon, from which a projectile (bullet) is fired by gunpowder” the right to own a firearm is protected constitutionally under the Second Amendment and is a topic of great debate. The second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, [and] the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”. The second amendment of the United States Constitution is in jeopardy of infringement, and it is our job as American citizens to stand up and defend our right to bear arms. As citizens of the United States, we pledge our allegiance to our fellow citizen to fight for liberty and justice for all even if it is against our own government. The federal government has been increasingly over scrutinizing and blaming “lack of firearm control” for crime after crime when the true cause is ignorance, overreaction and carelessness.

There are three types of laws regarding possession of handguns “shall-issue”, “may-issue”, and “no-issue”. Forty states currently have “shall-issue” laws meaning the state “shall-issue” a handgun carry permit to those who meet the required specifications, nine states currently have “may-issue” laws in which the state “may-issue” a handgun carry permit to applicants who pass the predetermined criteria as well as provide an explanation as to why they deserve to be issued a handgun permit, and one state, Illinois, has a “no-issue” law where the state does not issue handgun carry permits and carrying a loaded, handgun on one’s person in public is completely and totally illegal. As of right now, all fifty states allow firearm ownership, however, as previously stated, there are only forty-nine of fifty states with some form of legislation allowing the carry of handguns on one’s person. The typical handgun carry law refers to one’s right to have a handgun loaded and ready on one’s person at any given time, some are more in depth with restrictions and requirements allowing only visibly holstered handguns of certain calibers, or only issuing to certain persons, whereas other states may require any guns on one’s person to be completely concealed.

Over the years firearm ownership has come under attack again and again, becoming the target of more and more restrictions. In 1791 the Second amendment was initially ratified stating, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, [and] the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” and in the years following, this amendment has been redefined and manipulated to conform to governmental ideals. In the 1856, Dred Scott v. Sandford case the Supreme Court put forth a ruling that the full rights of American citizenship would include the right “to keep and carry [protective] arms wherever [citizens] went. “The assassination of the thirty-fifth Commander in Chief, John F. Kennedy, put The Gun Control Act of 1968 on the fast track through the government prohibiting “mail order sales of rifles and shotguns, increased license requirements for sellers and broadened the list of persons prohibited from owning a firearm to include convicted felons, drug users and the mentally incompetent” many American citizens agree with the increasing restrictions being placed on firearm ownership as a whole and on handguns specifically. In 1994 President Bill Clinton signed what became the “hallmark of gun control efforts in the latter twentieth century” that required a five-day waiting period and background check for the sale of handguns, this bill also banned a number of “assault” rifles, including many semi-automatic rifles such as the AK-47.

In 2012 Newtown, Connecticut was the scene of a horrific massacre killing 20 school children and six teachers, in response to this, The Honorable Barack Obama has proposed a new national law wherein more bans are placed on, handguns, shotguns and “assault” type rifles. This ban includes anything with a folding or telescoping stock, a threaded (detachable) barrel, or a pistol grip, with the last restriction focused mainly on rifles and shotguns. “Under the proposal, the U.S. Attorney General can add any ‘semiautomatic rifle or shotgun originally designed for military or law enforcement use, or a firearm based on the design of such a firearm, that is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General.’” The NRA has made their position known by stating, "Attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation…Only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy."

Author's Note

A work in progress

Reviews

[Delmar Cooper]

I'd like for you to consider this as a comment on your essay and not on the gun debate. I have a copy of the constitution and I read it about once a year to refresh my memory. Same way I read the Bible only I generally skip the "begats."

The last four paragraphs of your essay are cut and dried information at least from your perspective, and as an informing source the author is entitled to have a perspective or point of view. Nuff said.

The first paragraph is fiction slanted to that perspective, again within the author's province. The question I ask is: "Is it persusave?" I don't think it will win over the citizens who favor strict restriction of guns. I think they will see it as a self serving contrived piece of propaganda that uses logical fallacy to make its point. But, let us assume the reader is a second amendment advocate who is in exact agreement with all the points made in the four paragraphs that follow the fictional paragraph. For this reader the essay is preaching to the choir and really not persuading of anything other than an amen.

There is one more class of potential reader. That person is the one who has not yet formed a hard, resolute opinion about this issue. My question is: "Will this essay win that reader over or push him toward the other opinion?"

It isn't my place to answer this as I already have a hard, resolute opinion on this issue. As a reviewer I wanted to mention all this to you, the author.

[Storm K.]

You make a very interesting point with this essay/debate, what ever you would like to call it. It's true that having more gun laws probably won't stop tragedies happening as it is the individuals who use the weapons that are to blame, but personally, as someone living in and coming from the UK where firearms have been mostly banned (unless you have a license, which is heavily regulated by the authorities) my feeling is: surely it would be better to just take guns out of the equation?

[T.C. Banks]

Thank you for the review, however I do not agree that gun elimination is the solution, look at Australia, guns have been 100% removed from public sale and their crime rates went through the roof.