Second Amendment

After all, it was privately armed militias who first helped secure and sustain our independence from foreign oppressors. Does having the most powerful military in the world mean we no longer need any measure of personal defense? No it does not. As gun-control advocates are quick to point out, there will always be deviant people who wish to misuse their freedoms to inflict harm on others.

These miscreants do not tend to pose a threat to national security; they pose a threat to personal security. They do not pass through the mechanisms that are in place to guard our nation’s front door, because they are already inside. They are marching into our schools, randomly targeting our pedestrians, and killing their roommates in mid-slumber. They may brandish firearms, but they have pressure cookers, too. They are not shooting to shoot, they are shooting to harm—and harm comes in many forms.

There are several layers of security that lie between personal security and national security. Layers like home, municipal, and state security. Depending on occasion, the responsibility to uphold, or reinforce, these layers may well fall to private citizens.

“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.” – Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

Regulation is certainly a staple of the amendment above, and the nature of those regulations is worth discussing. However, the phrase, “shall not be infringed.” is an undeniable proclamation that citizens should forever be allowed to bear arms.<

Other countries, who tried meeting violence with increased regulation, have encountered frightening results. Since Australia’s implementation of stricter gun laws, its Institute of Criminology has reported a 40% increase in assaults and a 20% increase in sexual assaults.

Stripping the public of its ability to carry firearms is an open invitation to criminals—criminals who do not care if they are breaking the law—to wreak uninhibited havoc in our streets. Regulation may be healthy, but it must be forged with freedom and security in mind.