A Support for the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution

With the recent gun violence over the past decade, from Columbine to the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, the Second Amendment and gun control have been a hot topic in the media. What is the Second Amendment? The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “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 words of the Second Amendment make it sound pretty cut and dry, and as a combat veteran with two tours in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, I fully support the Second Amendment and the rights that it grants to American Citizens.

One of the biggest arguments against the Second Amendment is the time in which it was written compared to the weapons we have today. When the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791 the military was using long rifles with ball ammunition and powder cartridges.

The Second amendment gave citizens the right to bear similar arms. In these modern times weapons have evolved and improved one hundred fold since 1791 and the Second Amendment should and has evolved with it, albeit with some exceptions. While our military has fully automatic weapons the general population is not allowed to own weapons with a fully automatic option without a special license which is usually expensive and can be difficult to get. This is an example of some gun control that we already have in place.

“No one needs a gun”, this simple sentence and train of thought is also something that has been heard unfortunately more often than it should.

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Everyone has a right to his own opinion and those with the opinion that nobody should own a gun are absolutely entitled to think that. They should know however that the average police response time to an emergency situation is

six minutes while a licensed gun owner with a conceal carry permit can draw and aim within 5 seconds (Adams). The perfect example of where this line of thinking is the tragedy that occurred in Aurora, Colorado at the Batman: The Dark Knight Rises premiere where a gunman killed 12 people and injured 59 others [Eri12]. Aurora is a town with extremely strict gun laws. Concealed weapons are against the law and discharging a firearm in public is unlawful unless you are a Police Officer [Mik12]. The problem with these overly strict gun laws is that it disarms the public, basically making it impossible to defend themselves. A criminal by nature is not going to obey a gun law. Therefore, areas with strict gun laws basically remove a law abiding citizen’s ability to protect himself from criminals who don’t care about the law in the first place.

The biggest problem we have with guns in this country is when they get into the hands of mentally disturbed people. The government, but more importantly the people, has a responsibility to monitor each other. Taking away a citizen’s right to keep a weapon on them, whether it be concealed or in sight, is not the answer. This is made painfully clear from the Aurora tragedy. Ron Meyer of CNS News put it perfectly when he said, “I cannot help but think, if one person in that audience was carrying a gun with them, that person could have saved lives. Unfortunately – despite what some of the Left have said – this tragedy is an example of the importance of our Second Amendment Rights.”