When stepping into office as the leader of the free world and President of the United States, the first thing that the President does is swear under oath that he will, "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." The Second Amendment of the Constitution allows Americans to bear arms in order to protect themselves from criminals, terrorists, and even our own government! Mass shootings and terrorists attacks have politicians and parts of the American public worried that these crimes are the result of too many firearms in the United States. What is not shown on the media and brought about to everyone's attention in today's society are the positives that come from guns. It is statistically proven that murder rates are decreasing as the purchasing of firearms increase. Criminals do not obtain guns legally and Kit Daniels, a writer for infowars put this is perspective perfectly when he said, "criminals don't obey laws and neither do terrorists"(Daniels). Banning guns would only hurt the law-abiding citizens and make them more vulnerable to the criminals and terrorists who get their hands on them. The counter arguments are not all full of extreme gun bans and complete removal of firearms. Having more background checks and stronger screenings are both great tools that can help keep guns away from the wrong people. Our founding fathers made bearing arms a God given right that should not be taken away from us, but through media perception and the public's emotions, the true statistics of self-defense, murder rates, and common sense have been forgotten. Law-abiding citizens should have the right to protect themselves and their families from the unfair cruelties that this imperfect society has today, and the people who deny this are only helping the power seeking monsters obtain full control of the public.

Before diving deep into the statistics that support the argument of no gun control, it is immensely important to understand the deep meaning of the Second Amendment. Although this broad term can seem redundant and out of date because of the time it was implemented, we must understand why it is still critically important today. Our most well recognized founding father, George Washington, has said that, "A free people ought not only be armed and discipline, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own Government"(Washington). Now this might trigger people to say that the government trying to harm us is absurd and would never happen. If we take a look back in history, it is a common trait of every communist regime to take away guns. As we recall, arguably the most famous totalitarian dictator, Hitler, is know for taking guns out of his country. The same goes for the Soviet Union where 50 million were killed, China where another 50 million were killed, Cuba, Vietnam, and Cambodia! An ex-secret service member of the United States was quoted in a speech saying, "12 million unarmed men, women, and children were unable to resist being murdered by their own national socialist government in Germany"(Bongino). Now it is almost a certainty that the German people of that time has no idea that what happen was going to be the result of turning over their way of self-defense, but it sadly turned out to be an awful situation. It is fair to say that the German people were caught off guard and were manipulated by a corrupt government. The people of America today can not fall into the same trap!

The scary part of the gun control issues today is that there is an extraordinarily large amount of information that is not shown to the public. Because of the strong emotions that come with this topic, people are capable of choosing their side of preference without really understanding the issue in full. Media showing the mass shootings and terrorist attacks over and over again are triggering emotions to flare, as they should, but what is lacking to be shown is the true common sense behind these attacks. President Obama has been quoted saying that, "mass shooting don't take place in countries with more gun control"(Hoar). The last two mass shootings have taken place in Paris, France and San Bernardino, California and the people of these cities would light to disagree in light of the recent attacks. Both of these cities are known for having some of the strongest gun laws anywhere. Another one of America's most strict gun law areas is Chicago, which is estimated that someone is shot every 2.8 hours despite the city's gun laws(Daniels). Now whether someone thinks this is a coincidence or it is cold hard proof, it is unarguable that the strict gun laws in each of these three cities mentioned above did nothing to prevent the attacks that happened. In California, all firearms sales, transfers, including private transactions and sales at gun shows, must go through a California licensed firearms dealer. It is time to stop blaming guns and gun laws for all these mass shootings and start looking at the people who are doing it and how we are going to stop them.

This movement toward removing guns from America all together is mainly because of the violence that we recognize all around us in today's world. But how relevant and how crucial is a gun when it comes to actually analyzing the statistics of deaths in the United States per year? It is shocking when we realize that, "knives kill 5 times as many people then guns"(Beville). Knives have killed five times as many people and the government has not tried to ban guns because that just seems impractical right? It is because the good outweigh the bad with this "weapon", which is the same case for guns. The good outweigh the bad, but when all we hear about is the bad, then it strikes our interest to ban guns. Another option for maintaining gun violence is to ban semi-automatic guns. Assault rifles do not do as much as they appear to do. The same damage that an assault rifle does can be done with a little handgun. A statistic shows that only, "3% of murders used an assault rifle"(Beville). Considering that hands and feet kill twice as many people as rifles I think its safe to say that it is not the rifle that is causing deaths, but instead it is the sick minded people who make it happen. In a graph showing the 10 big killers in the United States, armed homicides are at the bottom of that list. Tabacco, accidents, and even medical malpractices kill more people just to name a few. Kyle Becker, the author of "Gun Control Statistics That Reasonable People Should Know" points out that baseball bats are actually the leading weapon used in violent crimes. But why is there no outcry to restrict baseball bat ownership? Because so many law-abiding citizens enjoy them for sport, just like guns(Becker). Legally owned guns prevent deaths, they don't cause them.

With the increasing so called problem of the lack of gun control that is gaining attention rapidly throughout the country, it is easy to forget to do research. Karren Ridder of Newsmax magazine reminds us of the statistics that although guns have increased dramatically, year-by-year, murder rates have actually decreased. She says, "Through 2010, the nation's murder rate has decreased 52 percent to a 47-year low"(Ridder). We have had a remarkable decrease of violent crimes in the United States since the early 1990s, even though the number of privately owned firearms has increased by 100 million. The numbers do not lie and the perception of guns must not be skewed in the public's eye because of the mistake of the mentally unstable people that perform horrific crimes using guns. There seems to be a feeling that things are worse then ever, when in reality, as Jacob Davidson reminded us of time magazine, " things are really better then they've been for decades"(Davidson). Many people argue that there are way more armed homicides in America then in England, which have much more gun control laws. This is true, but it does not take into account that America has 3 times more non-gun homicides then the English do(Wilson). Americans are just more violent people then the English and it is obvious to see. There is clear and strong evidence that shows that it is statistically proven that more firearms equal less homicides. It seems impractical to some people that this could be the truth, but when stepping back and putting things into perspective it makes sense. If there were more people in this world worried about pulling out a gun because they knew that there was a good chance that someone else around them had a gun to defend themselves, then that shooting would not take place.

The most important reason to keep guns in society today and in the hands of law-abiding citizens is because of self-defense. Self-defense is a right that was given to us when we decided to live in the United States and it is important that we maintain this. It is almost impossible to prevent a lunatic from popping off and trying to use a firearm to harm others, but the President of Florida Students for Concealed carry said it best. He mentions that while its impossible to keep guns away from bad guys, '"you can level the playing field by giving law abiding citizens a chance to defend their bodies and their property"'(Ben Ambridge). Mass shootings and school shootings seem so easy because the people who commit these crimes understand that there are no bullets coming from the other direction. If we level the playing field and allow the citizen to be armed then maybe the death totals of mass shootings will drop dramatically. In nature and in humanity there are naturally two kinds of animals, predator and prey. We must not make it easier for the criminals and surrender our source of self-defense because that now makes us the prey, and a very easy one at that. In the "Best 7 Minutes of Gun Control I have ever seen" video, a man gives us a great real life example of just how preposterous removing guns from the good people are. He talks about a cheetah hunting a gazelle and how if we cut the horns of the gazelle, then would the cheetah just stop hunting it? The answer is no, it only makes it easier for the cheetah to hunt the gazelle. This relates directly to law-abiding citizens not having access to guns while criminals obtain them illegally, which leaves us sitting ducks for those sick minded people. The gazelle uses its speed, hoofs and horns to protect itself and no one denies that(Beville)! There are anywhere from 800,000 to 2 million deaths prevented by guns every year. That is over 300 times more deaths prevented then caused by guns! Remember that those who cannot buy, will steal or borrow, so restricting the opportunity to get guns will only affect those out there with good intentions.

A huge target and critical location for mass shootings over the last decade and a half have been schools. Schools are an easy target because almost all schools have a no firearm policy as expected, which allows shooters to go in and fire at the defenseless. However, there is two cases explained in the LA Times newspaper that explains two armed school administrators fighting back. "In one Mississippi high school, an armed administrator apprehended a school shooter. In a Pennsylvania high school, an armed merchant prevented further deaths"(Wilson). Having teachers being armed is a great idea to stop shooters from thinking schools are vulnerable and attacking them without thinking there is going to be a consequence. If arming teachers is a little too far fetched or not reasonable enough, then there are other answers. Having an armed veteran on all campuses or having an armed retired officer could end and prevent a lot of the school shootings we have been seeing lately. Striking fear into the cowardly heart of the criminals will help immensely in the end. A gentleman in Carrie Beville's Youtube video explains another issue with the no concealed carrying of a weapon on campus. He gives us a real life example of a girl who had her permit to carry a concealed gun, but was on her campus of the University of Nevada when a man named James Bila raped her. That man went on to murder a 19-year-old girl a few months later. The first girl was then quoted saying, '"I know having being the first victim, that Brianna Dennison would still be alive today had I been able to defend myself that night." This does not prove that guns should be aloud on college campuses but it proves that people use their guns to defend themselves.

Defending our loved ones and ourselves is a right given to us in the Constitution of the United States. The right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is what makes America the fantastic country it is today, and removing the Second Amendment would threatened all three of those rights. As a country, we must recognize the failures of the strict gun law in places like Paris and San Bernardino and use that to understand that these laws are not successful. Unarmed citizens are easy and vulnerable targets for the terrorists and sick-minded people that live in this country. Medical malpractice is just one of nine other causes of death that is above gun related homicides in the top 10 killers in America. We must not remove guns from law-abiding citizens as a response to all the violence going on in this country. Schools are a great example of a society without guns and there has been way to many fatalities at schools. We must find an alternative way to have an armed professional protecting schools at all times. The United States of America is built on toughness and grit, so throwing our towel in and surrendering to criminals and terrorists is just not American. As our ex-secret service member said, "We live in a society of wolves. You do not fight back by creating more sheep"(Bongino)!


