Gun Rights

The 2nd Amendment. The right to bear arms. Gun rights.

Should Americans be able purchase guns? Yes. Should gun purchases be severely restricted? No.  

This is currently one of the biggest debates here in America, and rightfully so, considering recent circumstances. Yes, the United States has the highest rate of deaths as a result of firearms. However, taking away the people's ability to own guns won't do anywhere near as much good as some people think it will.

Imagine this: Somebody breaks into your home, your sanctuary, your safe-place, wielding a weapon at you, and with the intent to kill.  At this point, calling 911 may not do you any good, because the perpetrator is already in your home. What can you do? Use your gun to shoot the person intending to kill you in self-defense.  What would have happened to you if you didn't own that gun, if the government took away your right to do so?

Also, civilians have the power to stop mass shootings because of their right to carry a weapon. For example: In Mayan Place Theater in Texas, a man walked into a crowded movie theater, wielding firearms (with the intent to kill multiple people), and an armed off-duty police officer stopped his attack, with nobody else dead.
In 1997, a man entered Pearl High School, shooting several people, and began to move towards the nearby Junior High School.  The principle of Pearl High retrieved his handgun from his car, and held the gunman at gunpoint until officers arrived, stopping the murder spree.

There are many more examples of this happening, but do you hear about them in the news? 

Also, banning everyday civilians from being able to own a gun doesn't have the effect you think it does.  Somebody who has the intent to open fire at a school, public building, or public area obviously is not a law-abiding citizen.  If he really wants to cause mass death, he will get a weapon on the black market or through underground sales or trade.  You can't stop that, you can try, but there is no way to completely eliminate that.  The bad guys always find a way to beat the law and find what they want.  Those weren't Adam Lanza's guns that were used to open fire on Sandy Hook Elementary School.  They were his mother's, who was a law-abiding citizen and did not have any intent to harm anybody with them. 

Furthermore, law-abiding citizens very rarely buy a weapon with the intent on opening fire on a public building.  They want it for everyday purposes such as hunting, protection, or just because they're a collector.

While I don't believe that citizens should be banned from purchasing weapons, I do believe that people should be educated more in regards to weapons.  Adam Lanza's mother should have had her weapons locked away (preferably in a gun safe-they do have those for a reason) so that her son did not have access. So I would suggest teaching more people to use a weapon correctly, to lock them up appropriately, but I do not suggest banning them from the everyday law-abiding populace.  They're not the problem. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.  It's the people behind the gun that are the problem, not the piece of metal that they're holding. If somebody really wants to kill people, they'll find a way to do so.