Second Amendment Essay, Research Paper

The United States of America has taken drastic steps in taking away the American

peoples God given rights and Constitutional rights. The United States government

is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

There are very clear signs of a cancerous growth within our government and the

citizens of America need to take preventative measures to ensure the freedom for

which our founding fathers fought and died. I am speaking of numerous issues

that have arisen in the United States that clearly demonstrate that our

government is taking away our rights. I will hopefully be able to show a brief

description of the government, as it is today and what it was designed to be. I

will also describe our rights and the reasons for keeping those rights, such as

the gun control laws that have been passed restricting our rights to bear arms.

History serves us well in that it provides us with the facts that show increases

in crime, poverty, injustice and overall social unrest is the result of

Democracy as defined by our current administration. The fact is that the

governments idea of a democracy and our idea of a democracy are two different

meanings entirely. I speak about this because it directly affects the way that

the United States government has taken away not only your Constitutional rights

but also your God given ones. I have quoted below an excerpt from a military

manual that I once read that struck me as very profound. In order to understand

the true meaning of the word democracy, examine the definition of the word as

provided by the 1928 American Military Training Manual and then compare it with

the definition of the word Republic, taken from the same manual. Now remember

these definitions the next time you see a public official or anyone else for

that matter, standing before the camera talking about democracy: Democracy: A

government of the masses. Authority is derived through mass meeting or any other

form of direct expression. Results in a mobocracy. Attitude toward property is

communistic, negating property rights. Attitude towards law is that the will of

the majority shall regulate whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by

passion, prejudice and impulse without restraint or regard to consequences.

Results in demagoguism, license, agitation, discontent, and anarchy. Republic:

Authority is derived through the election of public officials best fitted to

represent them. Attitude for property is respect for laws and individual rights,

and a sensible economic procedure. Attitude toward law is the administration of

justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict

regard to consequences. A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may

be brought within its compass. Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or

mobocracy. Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and

progress. (1928 American Military Training Manual) While our government was

formed as a republic, we have lost that form and exchanged it for a democracy.

The fact that our forefathers had set up a Republic and not a Democracy is a key

to understanding the present government. Ours will be a democracy so long as our

elected officials will vote which ever way the powerful winds of special

interests blow, as long as they do not "administer justice in accordance

with fixed principles", those principles being set forth in the Bill of

Rights. The vast majority of representatives need to be removed from office and

replaced with those that will do a correct and honest job without thought of

personal gain. We need to set term limits to keep career politicians out of

office and elect citizen politicians who are true patriots to our great nation

that are trying to uphold what our forefathers had original set forth in their

sacrifices as the god given rights and Constitutional rights. There are few

great patriots in positions of power today. The end of the line, and I

reiterate, is that we are losing all of our constitutional rights, as well as

our God given rights. On a daily basis, the government is trying to take away

our Second Amendment rights as well countless other rights. Only a constant

vigil will keep those that usurp power and control from doing so. The Second

Amendment states, and I quote: ?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.?(Bill of Rights) In the Second Amendment it does not

state that you can own this type of gun or that type of gun, but it does state

that you have the right to keep and bear arms. The opposition would state that

legislation is needed to keep records of who can purchase guns legally. This is

a fair idea and I agree with it to an extent but now they are trying to

legislate every type of firearm and regulate gun shows. This is a fair point but

let me state that gun control laws have not shown a difference in the amount of

violence and killings. A gun does not kill people; people kill people. If the

gun control measures were working then we would not need to keep passing further

laws. The opposition continues to pass more and more legislation on gun control.

If you take away an honest citizens right to bear arms, then only the criminals

will have weapons and they do not care for the laws. The legal system in the

United States has apparently failed on most areas of concerns within our

society. The laws that are passed are very biased most of the time. The legal

system needs to be examined closely. The lawmakers do not need to pass more laws

and have so many on the books that it requires you to have to hire an attorney

to be able to understand them. The laws on the books need to be reviewed and if

they do not hold up or are outdated then take them off of our law books. There

are laws on the books that very few people even know they exist and are hence

not applicable. The following statistics are taken from Congressmen?s Ron

Paul?s? current legislation, HR407, Second Amendment Restoration Act.

Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as

2.5 million times every year–or 6,850 times a day. This means that each year,

firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens

than to take lives. Of the 2.5-million self-defense cases, more than 200,000 are

by women defending themselves against sexual abuse. And as many as one-half

million times every year, somebody carrying a gun away from home defends himself

or herself. Of the 2.5 million times citizens use their guns to defend

themselves every year, the overwhelming majority merely brandish their gun or

fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers. Less than 8 percent of the

time, a citizen will kill or wound his/her attacker. The police cannot possibly

protect every individual citizen. Currently, there are about 150,000 police

officers on duty at any one time to protect a population of more than 250

million Americans–or almost 1,700 citizens per officer. (H.R. 407) These are

staggering statistics that cannot be ignored. Some will say that Representative

Ron Paul is a proponent of the Second Amendment and that these statistics would

be expected from him but you have to look beyond the fact that he is proponent

Second Amendment and see just the fact that it has shown a good for society. Let

me further testify that the city and state police have no statement or

requirement in their doctrine to serve the public and protect it. The police are

there to enforce the laws of the municipality, state, and federal government.

The opposition will argue that is why we have police and we also have the

ability to call 911. In California thousands of 911 calls went unanswered

because the caller received a message that all operators were busy. California

Senator Feinstein wants to have severe gun control laws. The Senator has armed

bodyguards and I would ask her why does she need armed bodyguards when all she

has to do is call 911 for any help. An examination of policies and statistics by

John R. Lott Jr., a professor at the University of Chicago, shows that areas of

the country that had ?right to carry laws? saw the number of multiple-victim

shootings decline on average of 84 percent and deaths from these incidents

plummeted by 90 percent, injuries by 82 percent. (3) American citizens who are

law abiding, conscientious, and carry a concealed weapon or own a weapon provide

a significant social service by making a criminal think twice about who might

have a weapon and would the crime be worth it. Results from an interview

conducted by Ginny Simone with Keith Tidswell of Australia’s Sporting Shooters

Association show that one year after Australian gun-owners were forced to

surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed, including semi-automatic

.22 rifles and shotguns, and a program costing the government over 500 million

dollars a year was introduced and a dramatic increase in criminal activity has

been experienced. Gun control advocates responded, "Just wait, we’ll be

safer, you’ll see." The observable facts after 12 months of data

compilation shows that Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2%, Australia-wide,

assaults are up 8.6%, Australia-wide, armed-robberies are up 44%, and in the

state of Victoria, homicides-with-firearms are up 300%. The figures over the

previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in homicides-with- firearms and the

figures over the previous 25 years show a steady decrease in armed-robbery-

with-firearms. From 1910 to present, homicides in Australia had averaged about

1.8-per-100, 000 or lower which shows a safe society by any standard. The

Australian politicians are on the spot and at a loss to explain how no

improvement in "safety "has been observed after such monumental effort

and expense was successfully expended in "ridding society of guns".

Their response has been to "wait longer". (Australia: The Results Are

In) I quote Senator Hubert H. Humphrey to further show that the Second Amendment

does give a citizen the right to bear arms and not to be regulated by the United

States government: "Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under

any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to

keep and bear arms…. The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee

against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now

appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always

possible."(Americans on Self-Defense) All of the great dictators of this

era, Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, were democratically elected and then

confiscated the constituent?s weapons and passed laws to keep them from owning

a weapon. We do not need for this to happen in our country. Gun control laws are

a negative type of approach to controlling violence with firearms. Guns are used

for defensive purposes about five times as often as they are used for crimes.

John R. Lott, Jr. states that after examining a range of different policies that

higher arrest and conviction rates, longer prison sentences, and death penalty

generally reduce murders. But neither gun laws nor the severity of a punishment

has any significant effects on public shootings. (2) A multivariate statistical

analysis by Ik-Whan G. Kwon, et al, states that while the background checks do

provide a small amount of results, the overall result showed that major firearm

fatalities were associated with socioeconomic factors such as poverty levels and

alcohol consumption. Unless the country directs itself to curing these ills,

which have the greatest influence upon violent deaths by firearms, we shall

continue to see people abuse their Second Amendment rights. (Kwon et al. 8) If

the citizen cannot be responsible then he should lose his Second Amendment

rights to bear arms. Let us take for example the incident at Waco, Texas. The

Branch Davidian complex was destroyed in a joint Federal Police (FBI, BATF, and

Local Law Enforcement) and United States Military (Special Operations: Delta

Force) coup. The United States law enforcement agencies and the Delta Force went

out to Mount Carmel on an illegal weapons suspicion. The original reason for

proceeding to Mount Carmel has been hidden by the federal government. The have

stated, different reasons at different times, that they where out there for

illegal weapons, child abuse, and drugs. The federal government has lied

continuously about Waco to keep the public from becoming angered and not

permitting a police state to develop in our country. The FBI has shown recently

that they manufacture evidence and falsify reports used in criminal cases. The

FBI?s own official has stepped down amid the lies and manufacturing of

evidence. Frederic Whitehurst, the FBI forensic chemist and lab supervisor,

states that he was and is tired of the FBI falsifying his signature and

manufacturing evidence. (FBI) Given such actions can we trust the United States

government to be truthful and honest to American citizens? Do we not have

freedom of speech and freedom of religion in the United States anymore? If you

do not believe the information that I provide here, then do a search for

Operation ?Urban Warrior? on the Internet and read it for yourself. You will

be shocked at what you find available. The Branch Davidians were all law abiding

citizens and had the proper permits for the weapons that they owned. The United

States government went to the Davidian church without a warrant in possession

and the resulting massacre ensued. The United States of America needs to wake up

and take a long hard look at what has been transpiring behind closed doors at

our nation?s capital. Our society has lost the values and patriotism that our

history provides. The average 16 year old high school student cannot tell you

who Betsy Ross or Patrick Henry were or why they were famous. A person need only

look into an American history book to understand what America really stands for

or ask a military veteran. If our citizens and their children cannot believe in

the ideals of what our country stands for, then we are truly lost. We need to

take stock in America and bring back the idealism that made our country what it

was and what it can be again. A person who forsakes their freedom for safety is

a cowardly American citizen. We need to stand up for rights, both God given and

Constitutional. It takes citizens who care about their liberty and country to do

so. In the words of one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, ?Either we

all hang together or we will surely swing separately.?

67a

United States. Department of Defense. American Military Training Manual.

Washington: 1928 United States. United States National Archives. Bill of Rights.

Washington: 1776 United States. House of Representatives 106th Congress. House

resolution 407: 1999 Lott, John R. Jr. ?Gun Show.? National Review 31 May.

1999. Infotrack. Oct 1999. Saint Edward?s U. 2 Oct 1999.

Infowars. 19 Sep 1999. 24 Oct 1999. NRA Live.

Americans on Self Defense. 23 Oct 1999.

Kwon, Ik-Whan G., et al. ?The effectiveness of gun control laws: multivariate

statistical analysis.? American Journal of Economics and Sociology. Jan. 1997

v56 n1 p41(10). Infotrack. Oct 1999. Saint Edward?s U. 2 Oct 1999.

Friedan, Terry. ?FBI Whistle-blower leaves, gets $1.6 million.? CNN. 14 Oct.

1999. A1-2.