Final Essay Part 2

It was late at night when a 911 operator received a phone call from a distraught woman who said that her stalker was at her back door. (This man had previously slashed her tires among other things, simply because she no longer wanted to date him.) The operator then told the woman to go somewhere she could put a locked door between herself and the man. She soon, told the operator that from behind her upstairs bedroom door, she could hear him break a window and enter her home. Her voice lowers to a whisper and the operator asks if he has a weapon, only for the woman to respond that she had no idea –but that she had a gun. Finally, the call ends after you hear the man pounding down her door, two shots are fired and he asks her if she’s trying to kill him, and she fires a final shot that kills him. Her sobs are interrupted by the sound of sirens in the background –too late to have ever helped her.
Research on the Second Amendment has led to some interesting topics ranging from statistics to competitive shooting.
First and most importantly is gun safety. Being careful and knowledgeable around guns is extremely important so that no one ends up hurt because of a careless mistake. Rules such as always pointing the gun away from you and other people, never placing your finger on the trigger until ready to fire, and checking to see if the gun is loaded as well as if the safety is on are all equally and extraordinarily important. The full steps for safety can be found on the National Rifle Association’s website: http://www.nrahq.org/education/guide.asp.
Through some of my expansive research, I was able to find statistics that helped to compare and see the results of changing gun laws. One very interesting one involved the right to carry law in Florida. Apparently, when Florida adopted the law in 1987, the “firearm homicide” rate actually decreased 37% while nationally, the rate increased 15%. This is strong evidence that guns do not really create violence. Sometimes people do not realize that even if you attempted to remove all guns from the population, first of all it would never work –if the situation was right might even create a revolt; and, secondly, criminals would still be able to find guns on the street. What is the difference between illegally gaining possession of narcotics and gaining firearms? Sure, you can make some drugs but the reality is that if you want something badly enough you will find a way to get a hold of it –and for criminals this is not an issue as they are clearly not worried about doing things lawfully. Just as intriguing is the fact that in 1995 only 1.5 % of fatal accidents were a result of a firearm (http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp). More recently, "[t]he decision [of the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller ] struck down the District’s bans on handguns and on having any gun in operable condition as violations of the Second Amendment” (http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=235&issue=010).
With the Second Amendment right, people used to belong to the local militia and use their firearms to hunt. But, in today’s world, the United States has no need for a militia and now people still hunt and also participate in competitive shooting. Competitions have evolved to include many types of guns including hand guns as well as shotguns. During an interview with a competitive shotgun shooter, Mark Birch, I learned that shotgun shooting is not as affected by new gun restrictions because, due to their size and use, they are not concealable and are most often used for hunting or competition, and, therefore, are not frequently attacked by politicians.
Personal opinions vary but, by exploring the cyber world of Second Amendment rights, I believe that one can logically deduce that the right the keep and bear arms is a wholly American one which should be protected. Although guns can and are used in crimes, taking guns away from the honest population is unjust. People such as the woman being attacked by her stalker and other citizens who have found themselves in precarious situations should be able to protect themselves and their families.