According to the Second Amendment in the Constitution, the citizens have the right to possess and bear arms. This amendment was ratified in 1791 to keep the citizens of America safe and to keep the government honest. Over 200 years later, there have been a numerous deaths and deathly incidents because of guns in America. Events like the Columbine High School massacre and young children accidentally setting off guns, gun control has been a huge topic, politically and culturally, throughout America. There have been countless debates on if we should keep allowing guns to the public or put tougher restrictions on getting guns. Guns can be a safety blanket in a time of crisis when help is not available. Rather than put more restrictions on guns and gun owners, we should maintain the ability to protect ourselves and one another with firearms. …show more content…
Laws are being constantly brought up, challenged, or appealed. Our founding fathers would not have been pleased if they saw America’s issue with guns today. One of the founding fathers, James Madison, explained that American citizens were armed so the federal government would be unable to exert power beyond the powers listed in the Constitution. The debate over the Second Amendment and gun rights in the United States was reignited when a federal appeals court struck down one of the toughest gun control laws in the country. In March 2007, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a 30-year-old law that forbade all D.C. residents from owning guns. The law was challenged by Washington, D.C. residents who said they wanted to keep guns in their homes to protect themselves against crime. Afterwards, in the court case District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme court upheld the Appeals Court’s ruling and those people can now own guns for self-defense. But this big fight for owning guns is very