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Constitutional Law Gun Control Paper Gun control is undoubtedly an issue that most Americans have been exposed to. In 1989, guns killed 11, 832 Americans. The National Rifle Association (NRA) members believe that it is their constitutional right to own guns, stating that guns are not the root of the crime problem in the United States. Gun control activists like the members of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) argue that guns are responsible for the majority of violent crimes that take place. They wish to instill many types of bans and waiting periods on firearms, making it nearly impossible to obtain a handgun. In fact, in 1993 the Brady Bill, which mandates a waiting period on buying firearms, was passed.
Their arguments range from protecting children to saying that guns are diseases, but when one looks at the facts, though, the arguments of gun control advocates seem irrelevant and it becomes clear that guns should not be controlled. The Supreme Court has been very careful in limiting the rights of individuals to carry firearms. They have also been debating about weather the framers intended the Second Amendment to apply to individuals, or to state militias. In U S v.
Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542 (1875) the court ruled that laws could be passed regarding gun control. The court said The right theyre specified is that of 'bearing arms for a lawful purpose. ' This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed; but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government, leaving the people to look for their protection against any violation by their fellow-citizens of the rights it recognizes, to what is called, in The City of New York v.
Mail, 11 Pet. 139, the 'powers which relate to merely municipal legislation, or what was, perhaps, more properly called internal police, ' 'not surrendered or restrained' by the Constitution of the United States (FindLaw). This case laid the groundwork for future gun control legislation. The court again ruled that it could limit the right to bear arms in Cases v. United States, 131 F. 2 d 916, 922 (1 st Cir. 1942), cert. denied, 319 U.
S. 770 (1943). The court, upholding a similar provision of the Federal Firearms Act, said: ''Apparently, then, under the Second Amendment, the federal government can limit the keeping and bearing of arms by a single individual as well as by a group of individuals, but it cannot prohibit the possession or use of any weapon which has any reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia'' (FindLaw). Through all of this, the court always emphasized that it must be careful not to infringe on the rights granted under the second amendment. The debate still rages on to this day over weather or not the second amendment applies to individuals or not.
Gun ownership by private citizens is protected under the second Amendment. It states that 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. The forefathers of our country meant for the people to own and use firearms, and any law or control on that right would be unconstitutional. Gun control activists essentially believe the Second Amendment guarantees only to its militia the right of arms, but the Gun control proponents have yet to identify even a single quote from one of the founders to support their claim (Silver 78). The Second Amendment supports gun owners, and hard evidence that it does otherwise is nonexistent. I feel that the founding fathers believed it necessary for private citizens to possess firearms not only to protect themselves, but also to prevent the government from tyrannizing them.
It is a popular quote in the NRA that the second amendment holds up the first. I believe that this is true. In Germany in the 1930 s, as people who did not support Hitler and his Nationalist Party were speaking out against him, Hitler took action to pass legislature to ban private ownership of firearms. Hitler said "The most foolish mistake we could possible make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms (Whitley).
Following this, the now defenseless people that did not support Hitler were imprisoned, and millions of Jews and others were executed. If they had been armed, possibly they could have defended themselves. In America our rights are guaranteed because the government knows that the people have the ability to revolt. The founders intended for this, noting that if the constitution was no longer viable; it should be ripped up and redone. If Americans no longer had the right to bear arms, we would truly be the governed and not the governing.
Noah Webster said, Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed (Whitley). I agree with this statement, and would equate it to mean no guns, no freedom. Gun control advocates have been lobbying for many years for the passage of the Brady Bill, which called for a mandatory waiting period for all national firearm sales.
Ironically, the passage of this bill in 1993 has done nothing to reduce crime; in fact violence has risen still since the passage of the bill. This bill, which was made out to be more than it really is by its supporters, has become the prime distinction in most Americans minds with gun control. A waiting period did not help the present situation at all, and similar measures are almost certainly going to assume the same fate. There are some members of the Senate, led by Sen.
John McCain (R-AZ) that while supporting the second amendment, are proposing common sense measures to attempt to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, children, and the mentally incompetent without infringing on the rights of law abiding citizens. It is this type of antigua control that I support. McCain supports background checks and waiting periods, but does not want to penalize the law-abiding citizens that any gun control measure should be aimed to protect (McCain). Private ownership of firearms is not a public health hazard.
Gun control activists argue otherwise, but to put guns in the same category as influenza and pneumonia is absurd. The Advocates state that guns are a public health issue and almost deadlier than automobiles to the public. The fact is that more Americans die yearly from pneumonia and influenza than in all homicides and suicides, even non-gun related, combined. Many people listen to doctors, who reason that guns are pathogens. The definition of a pathogen is an object that causes disease when introduced to a pathogen-free environment (AMA). There are 200 million privately owned guns in America, and only an utterly tiny fraction of them are used in crimes.
According to the definition, guns are not pathogens and not a publi...
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