We Must Do Something
Why the Second Amendment No Longer Works For Us.
I grew up in the Midwest where people like their guns; I have been around hunters and gun enthusiasts my whole life. As an adult, I spent a few years working with and around military technology for a defense contractor in South Florida. I have never been timid around guns or felt like I was in any sort of danger. Unfortunately, society has seen a dramatic rise in gun violence over the last several years, and the peace of mind as it relates to gun safety is no longer what older generations remember.
We now live in a world where the status quo is another mass shooting and it is heartbreaking that these stories are considered the norm. We, as people, have become desensitized to seeing innocent lives shattered at the hands of a mad man with a gun. Unfortunately, the conversation about gun reform has become a divisive subject and the debate has split people into two groups: those that advocate for the reform of our gun laws, and those that believe that said reform will infringe on their constitutional rights. In order to protect innocent citizens from becoming the next victims we must work to understand the intention of the Second Amendment; this law is antiquated and does not apply to the context of our society today.
As Americans we enjoy a vast number of freedoms and take full advantage of their benefits; our passion for firearms is no different. There is a long history and appreciation for these gun laws. These laws were considered so important that they were the focus of the second constitutional law indoctrinated into our government. The Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, at a time when the American people were under the threat of a tyrannical government. This amendment granted more power to the states to fund “well-regulated militias” and allowed citizens to arm themselves for defensive purposes. Today, we know these militias as the National Guard (Brooks, 2017). In today’s culture, debate over the Second Amendment has become divisive. There are certain pro-gun groups, such as the National Rifle Association, that interpret the Second Amendment as the right of all citizens to own a gun, not just militia members. On the other side of the debate, groups like the Brady Campaign argue for stricter regulations, the types of weapons that are available, and those who are permitted to own them. This group believes that the Second Amendment should not be used as a “blank check” for gun sales (Brooks, 2017). This rift in public opinion has brought to light numerous faults within the writing of this 1791 law as it applies to our lives today.
The United States of America has only been a blip on the timeline of modern civilizations. In this short time we have written and evolved our laws and principles so that they better suit our citizens as the times change. There are several differences between today’s society and the status quo of America when the Second Amendment was written. Most notable is the absence of a tyrannical government and the need for a well-regulated militia to defend the citizens. We should also recognize that when this law was written, the majority of weapons that were used by militia members were clumsy and inaccurate; most could only fire a single round and had to be reloaded by hand. This is a remarkable difference from the weapons that are sold in the marketplace today. Today’s firearms are engineered for greater accuracy, capacity, and rate of fire. An argument can be made that there is still a need for citizens to protect themselves from dangerous criminals. However, it is unnecessary for a private citizen to accumulate an arsenal of military grade weaponry that were designed to eliminate multiple enemy combatants in seconds. The country we live in is a much different place than it was more than 200 years ago, and the context of the laws that were written at that time have little representation of the status quo today.
Regardless of which side of this debate you find yourself on, it is impossible not to see that our country is in crisis. For example, the United States saw 56,755 of its citizens lose their lives to guns in the four years between 2014 and 2017, according to The Week UK (Gillie, 2018). Something must be done to counteract this threat to the safety of our citizens. One thing we can do is reform our laws to include stricter background checks for those seeking to purchase firearms. We can also restrict the types of weapons that are permitted for purchase. The fact is, a majority of Americans support this type of gun reform and universal background check; to ignore this is a disservice to democracy. We can take a country like Japan as an example of the success of tighter gun regulation. According to an article in The Independent, Japan has some of the strictest gun laws in the world and averages fewer than ten gun related deaths per year. Those who wish to purchase a weapon must go through a rigorous vetting process including passing a written test, a shooting accuracy test, mental evaluation, and a criminal background check (Weller, 2018). This same article cites another country who found great success with national gun reform. In the late 90’s, Australian Prime Minister John Howard assembled a group, after a deadly shooting, to address the problem of gun violence in his country. This group successfully destroyed over 600,000 weapons through a nationwide buyback program; the country saw gun deaths drop nearly fifty percent as a result of this program (Weller, 2018). Obviously, there is not one single metric or strategy that will work for every other nation, but this evidence shows us that reforming gun laws and policies would have a positive impact on the safety and wellbeing of American citizens.
Even with all the evidence of successful gun reform laws in other countries, there are still those that push back against similar policies in this country. These people believe that reforming our laws would not only be a constitutional violation, but that it would have no effect on the rate of gun violence. One of the most common statistics that anti-gun reform groups like to cite are the crime numbers in Chicago. They claim that because Illinois has strict gun laws and also has among the highest gun violence rates, it must be the case that strict guns laws don’t work. An article written and published by NPR explains the fallacy with this claim. The strict gun laws of Illinois are not federal laws, and it’s surrounded by states that are weak on guns (Kurtzleben, 2017) this makes it easy for anyone to travel across state lines to purchase weapons and bring them back. The same can be argued in the case of California or Washington D.C., which are considered to have the strictest gun laws in the country. State lines don’t prevent gun violence. However, if we were to enact gun law reform on a federal level, that would eliminate this loophole.
It is time that we have an honest conversation about how we can reform our gun laws so that they protect innocent lives that are needlessly lost to gun violence. It should be made clear that a reform of our guns laws does not mean dismantling the Second Amendment, but rather the understanding that we live in a different time and outdated laws should be rewritten in today’s context. As the number of shootings grows every day and the next tragedy could strike in our own backyard, the debate of gun reform is one of the most important conversations of our time. We must do what is necessary to protect the lives of our fellow citizens as well as the sanctity of our constitutional rights.
Works Cited
Brooks, Chad. “The Second Amendment & the Right to Bear Arms.” LiveScience, Purch, 28 June 2017, www.livescience.com/26485-second-amendment.html.
Gillie, Rebecca. “US Gun Violence in Six Chilling Statistics.” The Week UK, The Week UK, 18 May 2018, www.theweek.co.uk/91679/us-gun-violence-in-six-chilling-statistics.
Kurtzleben, Danielle. “FACT CHECK: Is Chicago Proof That Gun Laws Dont Work?” NPR, NPR, 5 Oct. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555580598/fact-check-is-chicago-proof-that-gun-laws-don-t-work.
Weller, Chris. “These 4 Countries Have Nearly Eliminated Gun Deaths — Here’s What the US Can Learn.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 18 Feb. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gun-deaths-eliminated-america-learn-japan-australia-uk-norway-florida-shooting-latest-news-a8216301.html.
