The Pros And Cons Of Banning Assault Weapons

How would you feel if one of your supposed unalienable rights was being stripped from you. This is currently happening in the United States of America. Many people are trying to strip away an unalienable right of all Americans. Many congressmen and political figureheads are trying to strip away the American right to keep and bear arms. They want to ban assault weapons and this is wrong. Assault weapons should not be banned because it is unconstitutional, they are the most commonly used weapons for sport, hunting, and self-defense, and they only account for a very small amount of gun-related crimes. It would be unconstitutional to ban assault weapons because they fall under the Second Amendment, which protects the American right

In other words, membership in a militia was not a special condition for gun ownership, because every American was assumed to be in a militia, tasked with the defense of his home state, proponents maintain. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, the framers of the Constitution established an individual right to bear arms, supporters say" ("The Second Amendment"). One of the biggest arguments against assault weapons is that the Second Amendment does not protect the individual right to keep and bear arms and that one must be in a militia in order to own a weapon. However, this quote shows how while the wording of the Second Amendment may seem as though one must be in a militia, that is false because the word was used synonymous with all able-bodied Americans. Even if it wasn’t unconstitutional to ban assault weapons a ban would not work. For example, the handgun ban in Washington D.C. did not work, in fact it did the opposite and increased the murder rate in Washington ("The Second Amendment"). As stated in the quote the handgun ban in Washington D.C. did not work and had the opposite effect of what it was intended to do, it increased the murder rate in

The article “Assault Weapons” supports this claim, “Assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have repeatedly been used to commit some of the worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history, and they contribute to the daily toll of gun violence in communities around the country” (“Assault Weapons”). Assault weapons allow for mass shooters to kill many more people at a faster rate than if they had a different weapon, an assault weapon ban could stop this. Assault weapons are also one of the most common choices for mass shooters and criminals in general. An assault weapon ban could only help America. This is wrong as assault weapons aren’t the most used weapons in mass shootings, for example, "The majority of mass shooters use handguns, and the overwhelming majority of school shooters do not legally purchase their weapons but instead took them from family members" ("Gun Control"). An assault weapon ban would not do much to stop mass shooters because they rarely use assault weapons and much prefer handguns. Stronger regulations on these guns would not help either as they do not typically legally purchase the guns and are more than likely to take the weapons from family members. A ban on assault weapons would not do much to stop mass shooters as assault weapons are not their most common choice of