The Security of a Free State: This essay points out some of the major flaws in the argument for strict gun control and argues for the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Essay by mariamarchitaCollege, UndergraduateA+, February 2004

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The possession and use of firearms is a source of much debate in the United States. Some people favor stringent gun control laws, while others are staunch supporters of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Both sides of the issue have many voters in agreement with them. For example, the "Million Mom March" is an organization (which incidentally, has only about 750,000 members) that supports stricter gun laws, believing that will make the world a safer place for kids. On the other side, we have the National Rifle Association, a 4 million-member group that lobbies for more liberal gun laws, in accordance with our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. While firearm opponents have strong convictions and beliefs, people supporting the right to own and use a gun have logic on their side. The power to keep and bear arms, which the second amendment of our constitution grants to Americans, is a vitally important right and we must vehemently protect it as such.

An important aspect of the gun control debate that has been frequently making headlines lately is the right of citizens to carry concealed weapons. Challengers of this right like to assert that if ordinary people are granted the "right to carry", the country will be awash in shootouts, people will be toting their guns with them wherever they go and minor arguments will have deadly endings. However, the 36 states that already have laws allowing their residents to carry concealed weapons have not found this to be the case. In most states, only tiny fractions of people with "right to carry" permits have had their privilege revoked due to firearm misuse. For example, professor John R Lott, Jr, in an article for the Kansas City Star, wrote that "In the 15 years after...