Should Everyone Have the Right to Own a Gun?

Should Everyone Have the Right to Own a Gun?

When the notion of gun violence comes to mind, it is imperative to understand that it relates to the form of violence that is committed by using firearms, such as assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, or pistols. In contemporary society, gun violence is now a human right on a global scale. Doubtless, gun-related violence is a direct attack on everyone’s basic right to life. It is astounding to note that gun violence takes more than five hundred people daily, which essentially disrupts people’s lives around the globe. Anyone can be a victim, regardless of the social standings in society. However, it is crucial to point out that certain groups have a problem with the ramifications of gun violence more than their counterparts. These people are minorities, women, and communities of colour. Oftentimes, the sheer presence of the weapons could easily trigger fear in people and have long-term effects at the psychological level on individual persons or their entire communities. The fact that a section of persons is terrified of gun violence could lead to negative reverberations on the right of persons to education or even health care due to fear of attending school due to the presence of violence in society. With this notion in mind, it suffices to maintain that guns should entirely be outlawed and every citizen, regardless of their social status, should not be allowed to have one, to promote safety in society.

Foremost, it is essential to understand that the people who own guns have many reasons for owning them. Some have simply stated that they are simply invoking the Second Amendment. It states that every American citizen has the right as individuals to arm themselves. This amendment clearly maintains that there is no way the government can infringe on this right. By so saying, after its ratification in 1791, being one of the ten amendments in the constitution, formally understood to be the Bill of Rights implied that it increased the constitution through establishing visible rights of persons, curtailing the government’s powers, and bringing to the fore the basis of American freedom. When it comes to gun laws, they vary from one state to another in the USA. In California, for instance, there are stricter gun regulations than in other states. Conversely, should one purchase a weapon legally and own a firearm, the Second Amendment ensures that your right to own and keeps it guaranteed regardless of the regulations in any city. As such, the amendment allows one to use the weapons for lawful intentions, such as self-defence.

Also, the proponents of owning guns in America maintain that guns have no role in killing people. A gun cannot make itself harm or kill people. It is people with bad intentions who have guns that kill people. The US is at an impasse, but because the Constitution supports the weapon bearers, everything is much more complex than many hoped for. There is a concern when it comes to owning guns. Why do people still own guns, if possessing one it escalates gun-related deaths?

Besides, persons who confess to owning a gun personally, be it a pistol or a rifle, their reasons are changing. Today, about 48% of these people say they have these weapons for their personal safety, 32% of them maintain that it is for hunting intentions, while the remaining 18% offer other reasons. People citing protection as part of their primary intention to keep firearms has substantially increased over a period of time. Today, women are more likely to say they have firearms to protect them than their male counterparts, to the tune of 65% of women, compared to only 42% of male gun owners (Pew Research Center., 2013). A whopping 80% of women who own guns maintain that by possessing these weapons, they feel safer, even though only 63% of women would say they enjoy owning those deadly weapons, in comparison to their male counterparts who say they are comfortable having weapons, and they are about 83%.

Further, Americans feel that purchasing a gun is also more of a symbolic gesture that asserts their maintenance of independence. Recently, given the fact that independence has been hampered during the course of the pandemic, and there are restrictions in many ways, including personal freedom to travel, run businesses, visitations to the elderly, and even large assemblies also people could explain why some Americans felt the need to buy weapons as a symbol of their independence. Also, recent civil unrest has unnerved people and increased ownership of weapons.

It is imperative to note that the gun culture during the colonial period was responsible for holding together the American experiment that was uncertain.  It is definitely a culture that has a long history in America. Back then, these weapons were needed, especially for hunting the protection of livestock and insurance from the threat that came from humans. The fact that white men predominantly owned firearms implied that they used this power to control Indigenous persons who tried to resist their advances and also for enslavement purposes (Kalesan et al., 2016). After using weapons to suppress slave revolts and take the land from the natives, guns became a maker for the white man’s masculinity. This long history of the possession of firearms has played a major role in ensuring that the American populace remains reluctant to do away with their weapons.

Besides, a section of people maintains that the recent menace of feral pigs, whose population is spinning out of control, has played a significant part in the purchasing of weapons in states such as Texas. According to Mapston (2007), feral hogs are destroying the land, and their massive population is not helping. As such, rather than poison these hogs, which would be essentially inhumane, licensed shooting of these feral animals has gone a long way in the protection of the farmlands that these animals destroy. Guns have played a role because simply fencing the land does not help as these animals burrow through, below the fence.

However, we cannot ignore the ramifications of the easy access to guns in America today. Doubtless, “…the gun lobby has promoted many state laws over the last thirty years that have expanded the right to gun owners…laws have included carrying weapons both hidden and unhidden, broadened the circumstances with which lethal force can be used in self-defence” (Gabor, 2016). It implies that regardless of the numerous adverse reverberations that guns bring the society today, gun laws continue to be passed and advocated for. For instance, both unconcealed and concealed carry can traumatize victims of gun violence and interfere with their peace of mind.

Still, it is disturbing to note that gun-related deaths in America on a weekly basis far surpass that of the entire European countries combined. Also, America reaches alarming numbers of gun-related deaths annually with more than 33,000 deaths (Casselman et al., 2016). The availability of weapons tremendously exacerbated the notion of suicide, and gang violence and even reduced the feeling of security. Gun fires within the bounds of schools are a growing problem. The notion of concealed carry greatly increases the likelihood of gun violence in our school institutions. In the school setting, gun violence on the school premises takes numerous forms. Annually, more than 3,000 persons below 18 years are killed, with 15000 getting injured and trauma. It is estimated that over three million children are constantly exposed to gun violence yearly.

Also, gun violence in schools is understood to happen among students, staff and other personnel working in the school. Gun violence takes numerous forms in the school setting, including homicides or even suicides (Kolbe, 2020). The ramifications of gun violence in schools are horrific. The families of the victims and community members are at risk of getting longer and shorter periods of psychological effects that entail anxiety, grief, and PTSD. In the USA alone, there have been numerous mass shootings involving the death of many people, be it students or citizens going about their business. The fact that the issue of gun control in the US has been sharply divided into two potent groups has led to a state of limbo that has left the matter unsolved while crime rates increase. Take the UK, for example, in 1996, when Thomas Hamilton used a gun that he legally obtained to kill sixteen children who were five and six years old, including their teacher, the nation reacted immediately to curb gun ownership by civilians. The ban on handguns ensured that death by shooting was significantly reduced to date. However, America suffers bout after bout of mass shootings and gang violence that involves weapons.

Lastly, it is vital to understand that a total reduction in weapons will do more good than harm to the American population. It is selfish for people to keep insisting on owning weapons when innocent civilians are getting killed on a daily basis. It is uncouth for this issue to be politicized at the peril of the lives of people. The era of every one possessing weapons ended a long time ago, and after the Civil War, there was no reason to keep the Second Amendment. Today, if citizens did not have guns in America, the police would not always need to be nervous and ‘trigger happy’ which implies that numerous lives of people would be spared unnecessary deaths. The police would only need to patrol with cuffs and tasers, implying that minority groups such as people of colour would not entirely feel unsafe when encountering police.

References

Casselman, B., Conlen, M., & Fischer-Baum, R. (2016). Gun Deaths in America (Interactive Graphic).

Gabor, T. (2016). Confronting gun violence in America. Springer.

Kalesan, B., Villarreal, M. D., Keyes, K. M., & Galea, S. (2016). Gun ownership and social gun culture. Injury prevention, 22(3), 216-220.

Kolbe, L. J. (2020). School gun violence in the United States. Journal of School Health, 90(3), 245-253.

Mapston, M. (2007). Feral hogs in Texas. Texas FARMER Collection.

Pew Research Center. (2013). Why own a gun? Protection is now the top reason.

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Should Everyone Have the Right to Own a Gun?

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What do you think will be the most important debatable economic or social problem facing your field of work 20 years from now? Choose the problem, define it, and defend your position using credible research from the Rasmussen College library databases.