Government�s Regulation On Gun Control

Term Paper Title	Government�s Regulation On Gun Control
# of Words	1486
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.94

Government�s Regulation on Gun Control

Argumentative Essay

December 12, 2003

            Americans are confronted with growing acts of violence. Our streets have become a place where the elderly are picked on, women are attacked and raped, where teenage gangsters shoot it out for a "patch of turf" to sell their illegal drugs, and where innocent children are caught in the crossfire of driveby shootings. We cannot ignore the harm that these criminals are doing to our society, and we must take actions to stop these acts. However, the efforts by individuals to eliminate the legal ownership of firearms disarms the innocent citizens who are in need of a form of selfdefense.

            The simple definition of a criminal is someone who does not obey the law. The simple definition of a lawabiding citizen is someone who does obey the law. Therefore, if we pass laws restricting ownership of firearms, which category does this affect.  Gun control laws affect lawabiding citizens only. By their very nature, the criminals will continue to violate these new laws, they will continue to carry their firearms, and they will find their efforts at crime much easier when they know that their victims will be unarmed. Innocent people are turned into victims when new laws make it impossible for them to fight back. An unarmed man stands little chance against an armed one. An interesting recent development has been the recoil against the guncontrol advocates.

            The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States makes firearm ownership legal in this country. There were good reasons for this amendment in the constitution. Firearms in the new world were used for hunting, and occasionally for selfdefense. However, when the colonists felt that the load of British oppression was too much for them to bear, they picked up their personal firearms and went to war. Standing against the British armies, these people found themselves opposed by the greatest military force in the world at that time. ()

            The 18th century was the height of the British Empire, but a group of colonial freedom fighters discovered the power of the Minuteman, the average American gun owner. These Minutemen,  named because they would pick up their personal guns and jump to the defense of their country on a minute's notice, served a major part in winning the American Revolution. The founding fathers of this country understood that armed citizens was instrumental in fighting off oppression, and they made the right to keep and bear arms a constitutional right.

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            Over the years, some of the reasons for owning firearms have changed. As our country grew into a strong nation, we expanded westward, exploring the wilderness, and building new towns on the frontier. These new towns were far away from the centers of civilization, and there was little law. Crime had taken place, but the crime could be minimized when the townspeople fought back against the criminals. Eventually, these organized townspeople developed police forces as their towns grew in size. Fewer people carried their firearms on the street, but the firearms were always there, ready to be used in selfdefense.

             Guncontrol advocates came around the time of the Civil War. Southern leaders, who were scared that the freed black slaves would take advantage of their new political rights. These Southern leaders wanted to make it easier to oppress the free blacks. This oppression was successfully met by passing laws making it illegal in many places for black people to own firearms. Souther leaders made sure that the black population would be under their control, and the blacks would not have the ability to fight back.  These people who were the biggest fans of denying black people their basic rights walked around with their firearms. This hypocrisy made it impossible to resist their efforts. An unarmed man stands little chance against an armed one. It was a full century before the civil rights activists of the 1960s were a...

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