Gun Control

Chapter 12, LaFollette (2007) discusses gun control. Do citizens have a right to bear arms? Answer the question in your reflection blog. State your opinion and follow up your position with supporting documentation. Next, present the opposing side to your stance. Use external sources to enhance your claims.

            Owning guns is it a right or a privilege? If we take a deeper look at the situation I think that as Americans we are privileged to own and carry guns, it is not necessarily a right. The reason why I say this is because as La Follette (2007) put it, there are different degrees to which we are allowed to carry guns in this country and it is not open carry in most states by any means. For the most part this country adopts a “moderate abolition stance” (La Follette, 2007, pg.179) on the class of guns which we are allowed to carry, and a “moderate restriction stance” (La Follette, 2007, pg.179) on how we carry our guns. In other words, not everyone can own any type of firearm, and not everyone can conceal a gun in this country.

            I believe that the gun laws which we currently have is a fair system, of course nothing is perfect, but these laws do protect us from just anyone getting a gun; it also protects us from not being able to carry a gun. I believe that it is imperative that every citizens which has not violated certain laws be able to own and carry a gun to protect themselves from criminals, or perhaps even their own government. If you lose that privilege through bad behavior, then even though you are a citizen, you no longer have the right to bear arms.

            Our Second Amendment 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 constitution was written this way to protect people with firearms, aside from being able to protect us from each other, this gives us the right to keep our country free by being able to protect ourselves. If our government ever got out of hand, we do have the right to have create militia and protect our freedoms as needed, in my opinion I would not trust a government that would try to take the legal ownership of guns away.

            Another reason why I believe that we need to be able to legally own guns, is because the criminals will always have a way of smuggling weapons in to this country. Even in some of the cities with the most strict gun laws, we continue to see gang violence and murders committed with illegal guns stay surprisingly high. Of course there will always be incidents which occur in this imperfect world, but the majority of law abiding citizens will use their privilege to bear arms so that they can protect themselves and their families.

            Last year in France a group of terrorist attacked a newspaper company called Charlie Hebdo, they attacked them for their comments about terrorist and the terrorist beliefs. When authorities arrived on the scene they did not have any firearms to defend themselves with, due to France’s strict gun laws, these officers did not stand a chance to defend themselves or the citizens they are meant to protect and serve. This is just another case in the many incidents which strict gun laws did not stop the bad guys, but severely impeded an officer’s ability to protect and serve.

            I do believe that we should have regulations on gun control, as stated earlier, I believe that owning a gun is a privilege in this country and it should be treated as such. Not everyone can handle that responsibility, it is the equivalent to having a driver’s license. We need to assure that for this country to maintain being a free country that we do not start getting rid of the laws which our forefathers created to maintain the sanctuary which is the United States. I believe that we were founded on certain beliefs which were made to keep the people safe from those who would seek too much power and control. To remain free, we need to uphold and protect the constitution and our rights’.

Reference:

LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.