Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People and Other Nonsensical Rhetoric
Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People
And Other Nonsensical Rhetoric
The intent and historical relevance of the Second Amendment should be carefully considered against modern day situations and circumstances surrounding gun violence. Whether you believe the Second Amendment gives unequivocal rights to individuals to bear arms or that it only pertains to states militia and firearms should be tightly regulated by the government, reasonable measures should be taken to minimize the harm caused by guns. With both sides of the argument pointing to the Second Amendment as a tool to further their causes, a closer examination of this much-debated amendment is crucial to determine its historical relevance and its modern day implications. Nevertheless, an individuals right to own guns should always be weighed against the collective good of society. This can be accomplished by seeking a balance between freedom and reasonable regulations. Why did the framers of the Constitution feel the need to include an amendment addressing the militia and the right of the people to keep and bear arms? Robert Shalhope, Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma asserts, “The Founding Fathers were influenced by the fact that the entire body of republican philosophy known to them was based on English and classical history, which taught that popular possession of arms was vital to the preservation of liberty and a republican form of government.” There were fears that the standing army, provided for by the Constitution, would seriously threaten the liberty of the people in times of peace if there were no checks in place to prevent this from happening. Arguments for and against the ratification of the constitution were never about the need to control arms; rather the opposite was true with both Federalist and Antifederalist agreeing that the ultimate check on tyrannical government was an armed population. The need to include an amendment addressing the rights of the militia and
And Other Nonsensical Rhetoric
The intent and historical relevance of the Second Amendment should be carefully considered against modern day situations and circumstances surrounding gun violence. Whether you believe the Second Amendment gives unequivocal rights to individuals to bear arms or that it only pertains to states militia and firearms should be tightly regulated by the government, reasonable measures should be taken to minimize the harm caused by guns. With both sides of the argument pointing to the Second Amendment as a tool to further their causes, a closer examination of this much-debated amendment is crucial to determine its historical relevance and its modern day implications. Nevertheless, an individuals right to own guns should always be weighed against the collective good of society. This can be accomplished by seeking a balance between freedom and reasonable regulations. Why did the framers of the Constitution feel the need to include an amendment addressing the militia and the right of the people to keep and bear arms? Robert Shalhope, Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma asserts, “The Founding Fathers were influenced by the fact that the entire body of republican philosophy known to them was based on English and classical history, which taught that popular possession of arms was vital to the preservation of liberty and a republican form of government.” There were fears that the standing army, provided for by the Constitution, would seriously threaten the liberty of the people in times of peace if there were no checks in place to prevent this from happening. Arguments for and against the ratification of the constitution were never about the need to control arms; rather the opposite was true with both Federalist and Antifederalist agreeing that the ultimate check on tyrannical government was an armed population. The need to include an amendment addressing the rights of the militia and
Cited: Blackstone, William. Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. 1803. 16 Mar Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. “Firearm-Related Death in 26 Industrialized Countries.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 46(1997): 101-105. Cook, Ludwig. Gun Violence: The Real Costs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Saul Cornell, A Well Regulated Right: The Early American Origins of Gun Control, 73 Fordham Law Review 487, 506-516 (Nov. 2004). Kellermann, AL et al., "Injuries and Deaths Due to Firearms in the Home.” The Journal of Trauma, Infection, and Critical Care, vol.45, No. 2 (August 1998): 263-267<http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/factsheets/pdf/home.pdf>. Kleck, Gary. Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control. 1997. 8 March 2008. <http://www.guncite.com/index.html>. Shalhope, Robert. “The Ideological Origins of the Second Amendment.” Journal of American History 69 (1982): 599.