Not in my house!

Guns are not what kill people! People kill people! Taking guns away from society will make society more distrustful of every one around them. When the trust in community is removed, people have a far greater chance of procuring guns illegally just because they might think their neighbor has a gun too and why not; they need to protect their way of life as well. Instead we need to keep it legal for everyone to own a gun as long as they are within the parameters of those who can legally own or purchase a gun. Taking guns away does not stop school shootings or random massacres but will actually increase shootings because people will have a greater mistrust of the government and of their community. People are much more likely to scare off their attacker if they are armed either in their own home or out in public. 74% of felons polled agreed that "one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime." Criminals fear little ole me from shooting them when they are trying to force their way into my home. Now why would I need to protect myself from that? Owning a gun is considered a right and a freedom for every United States citizen who chooses to exert that right and freedom. there may be people who are not allowed to won a gun, but they made that decision when they chose to do something against the law that would prevent them from owning a handgun. But, I have not broken any laws and if I so choose to own a handgun I should be able to own one. I should never have to worry about someone coming into my home and taking what is mine. Either my possessions or to harm my family in any way. I have the right and the duty to protect what is mine. Why should I be OK with the criminal who wants to do me harm to have a gun to coerce me to do his bidding, but it is not OK for me to put a gun to his face and tell him to get the heck off my property!

Guns are used 2.5 million times a year in self-defense. Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year—or about 6,850 times a day.1 This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Self-defense is a right to every citizen. If a snake enters your home and is threatening your children what do you do? Will you call the police and complain about it and wait for them to rescue you. The Department of Justice found that in 1989, there were 168,881 crimes of violence which were not responded to by police within 1 hour. The police cannot help every person every time. There is just not enough officers available to us on a daily basis. Citizens far out number police officers on duty. The ratio is unbalanced, what are you going to do? Wait for the police to rescue you from the snake threatening your family or are you going to grab the nearest weapon possible to kill or dismember the attacker so you can get your children to safety. The same scenario works the same way if that "snake" is a burglar or rapist intent on harming you and your family. Will you wait heedlessly by for the police to get there in time to help you or will you step and protect what is yours to protect? I hope you are going to protect what is yours. That is a basic instinct in all humans. Survival of self and survival of kin. It is the most basic instinct we have as humans. That instinct takes over and can make us do anything we need to do to protect ourselves and our family. Why not use that gun you LEGALLY bought at the gun shop to protect you from the criminal.
The Brady bill was implemented in 1994 to decrease gun violence in the United States. Many politicians and research analysts have found that making the gun laws more strict does not help gun violence in any way, such as in Washington D.C. and Arlington, VA. In these two cities it has been stated that, The strict gun laws in Washington D.C. make criminals buy guns in Arlington, VA. But the crime rate is lower in Arlington, VA than in Washington D.C. Criminals who are ignoring the laws in one state will just pursue other options in other states with a more lax law towards gun control and gun ownership. There will always be guns, we as citizens and lawmakers don't need to change the gun laws. We need to change how people can get access to these guns.

Our right to own firearms.

When debating whether American citizens should be able to own personal firearms either in a personal, classroom, or legal setting, the second amendment is certain to be brought up. “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed” is what the second amendment of the United States Constitution states.

Some pro-gun control activists think this means that the right to own a firearm is limited to militia members only due to the first clause "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State." Which now days our militia is the national guard, so if this was the case, this amendment would be invalidated now. On the other hand, anti-gun control activists believe the most important part of this clause is "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed”. They believe this means US citizens have a right to own firearms whether in a military position or not. I believe is a combination of both these thoughts and by what early American politicians, legal scholars, and military men all said, it seems they thought the same thing.

St George Tucker, who was a lawyer, Revolutionary War militia officer, legal scholar, and a U.S. District Court judge (appointed by President Madison), wrote about the second amendment in "Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England" (1803). He believed that the intent was not to provide only militia with arms, but every law abiding citizen with the right. Regarding the 2nd amendment he states "This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty, The right of self-defense is the first law of nature . . . [When] the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." (Volume 1-appendix) This is important because the direct relation to self-defense is made here, which is a major concern that is brought up in the current modern debate.

Another reputable source who studied and wrote about the second amendment is US Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. He wrote "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States"(1833) which is the first comprehensive discourse of the US Constitution in whole. In this work he explained of the 2nd amendment, "The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. . . The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic." In addition, Tennessee Supreme Court later explained in Andrews v. State (1871) that this "passage from Story, shows clearly that this right was intended, as we have maintained in this opinion, and was guaranteed to, and to be exercised and enjoyed by the citizen as such, and not by him as a soldier, or in defense solely of his political rights."

By looking at these three examples, I believe we can conclude that the founding fathers, as well as the legal and political leaders of that time, intended for the people to have the right to own firearms both for the duty of militia work as well as private use.

How does the Brady Bill work for me?

The Brady Bill was implemented on February 28, 1994. This law established a national 5 business day waiting period on handgun purchases through licensed dealers. It also required local authorities to conduct background checks on handgun purchasers. "Gun Control Facts." By James D. Agresti. Just Facts, June 10, 1999. Revised 6/27/08. http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp Brady Bill has saved many lives and put away would be criminals who wish to do harm. There were 9 criminals who tried to purchase a gun in gun shops legally but the Brady Bill stopped them cold in their tracks. As of December of 1998, an amendment to the Brady Bill replaced the five business day waiting period with a national "instant" felon ID system."Gun Control Facts." By James D. Agresti. Just Facts, June 10, 1999. Revised 6/27/08. http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp Because of the waiting period of five days, criminals had to wait to have their background checked for legalities sake just like the rest of us law abiding folk who wish to do no harm unto others. But we want to have protection in our homes. There is nothing more worth protecting than your livelihood whether it be your place of business that provides for your family and loved ones or keeping a gun in your home to protect against would be intruders. Having the Brady Bill implemented in 1994 has eliminated many people since from purchasing a handgun or rifle would would want to use it for nefarious plans.

The often repeated claim that 12 children per day die from gun violence includes "children" up to 20 years of age, the great majority of whom are young adult males who die in gang-related violence. Lampo, David. "Gun Control: Myths and Realities." The Cato Institute. May 13, 2000. 30 Jan 2010 http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4706 I think it is amazing that we are told that twelve children die every day when in fact that most of those so called "children" are in fact legal adults who choose to participate in gun play with other "children" which is all tied into gang related gun deaths. What are the real estimates when it comes to gun related injury of children? How many children actually die from gun related deaths?

This all ties back into the Brady Bill that was encouraged by politicians on both sides of the spectrum. So how is it that today we cannot depend on our politicians to stand up fro what they believe in. We have to wait for Congress as a whole to make the decision on something that effect all of society. T he Brady Bill has made it possible for citizens to feel more safe. Knowing that our guns are not falling into the wrong hands just because they have the money to buy a gun. "Just because you want to, doesn't mean you can." I want to do lots of things with my life, quite possibly own a gun in the very near future. That doesn't mean that I can just hand over the cash and be done with it. I have to wait just like everybody else.

The Second Amendment, what does it say and how can we use it for gun control.

The Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (www.usconstitution.net) so now that we know what the Second Amendment lets break it down into a clearer understanding of what it means. Most people that you talk to leave the first part “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State” out, and jump right to “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” the problem with doing this is they are not understanding that it is ok for people to bare arms, but the original intention of the Second Amendment “was about an obligation citizens owed to their government and communities to contribute to public defense.” ( Second Amendment Is misused by Opponents of Gun Control) so keeping that in mind, people who try to use the Second Amendment, as a way to say that they should have the right to bare arms, also need to remember that is not the original intent of the Second Amendment, to keep and bare arm for personal use but to keep and bare arms to protect their government, and their communities.
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am2
The Second Amendment is misused by Opponents of gun control, Saul Cornell. Current Controversies: Guns and Violence. Miller, Debra. Detroit: Greehaven press, 2009.

My View point on Gun control

My viewpoint on gun control stems from gun shows, I read an article called The Facts about Gun Shows which was published Jan 10,200, in the article they talk about “ persons selling firearms have been required to obtain a federal firearms license.” This also applies to gun shows, however if you are not a licensed gun dealer and you have a gun that you wish to sale you can do this with out having federal firearms license. So that means if you or I wish to sale a fire arm, we can put an ad in the paper and sale it without having to obtain a federal license, or contact the FBI. So we could also go to a gun show and sell the gun out of the back of our car if we wished because we are only selling one gun. The problem that I ran into while researching gun shows is that the article The Facts about Gun Shows provides statistics that say that “in a study of youthful offenders in Michigan only 3 percent of the youth in the study had acquired their last hand gun from a gun show” I am not sure how far I will be able to go with this point of view, so I think I would also like to somewhat concentrate on the Second Amendment, which states, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, because I feel a lot of people misunderstand exactly what that mean, and why it is important to read the whole Amendment and not just focus on those 10 words.
Kopel, David B. "The Facts about Gun Shows." The Cato Institute. January 10, 2000. 28 Jan 2010 http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4835