The Pros And Cons Of The Second Amendment

his essay mainly focuses on the multiple perspectives given towards the Second Amendment. These perspectives are given from Saul Cornell and Joyce. They both analyze and examine on what the Second Amendment really means. They discuss about the rights that the amendment gives to citizens that live in United States, which is the right to own firearms. Also, They give some examples on how these deadly firearms are sometimes used for the wrong reasons. Lastly, these two people discuss on how the Federal Government should create more stricter laws and requirements on receiving a firearm, so that these deadly firearms will not be used for the dangerous reasons. 

The gun right debate

What did the America’s founding fathers really mean when creating

The Second Amendment states that anyone has the right to bear arms. This would mean that even a mentally ill person would have the the right to own a firearm. Our founding father understood that the freedom of owning a firearm without any regulation on owning them would not lead to freedom, but an absence of the government. Malcolm (2012), provides an example of Thomas Hamilton, a mentally ill individual, who had walked into a Scottish town’s primary school and shot sixteen young students and their teacher. He had injured ten other students and three other staff members before he had taken his own life. Malcolm’s example clearly proves why the government needs restriction on firearms that everyone should not be allowed to own one, such as mentally-ill

This would solve the problem of people just owning firearms for no good reason, but even if the this amendment had more firearm regulation on it. This would not solve all of the problems that firearms would bring for people that could get them. Malcolm (2012), provides an example of Great Britain and Australia. These two large countries had suffered from mass shootings in 1980s and 1990s, so they both decided to set up heavy gun laws to solve the problem. Great Britain had created an Act in 1998, that said owners of handguns had to turn them . If they did not the penalty of still owning a firearm would be 10 years of imprisonment. Even an honorable citizen that came into the possession of a firearm,even by accident would receive the harsh punishment. Australia made laws banning all semi automatic rifles and pumping action shotguns. They even made a more stronger restrictive licensing system on other firearms. Also, Australia even launched a system where they would buy back firearms to remove a huge amount from private hands. Even by these two large countries doing all of this hard work. Both countries did not make their people that noticeably safer, neither had they prevented massacres from occurring. This clearly shows that even by making stricter laws on possessing a firearms will not solve the life taking problems that the Second Amendment brings upon U.S. citizens today.