"The world is filled with violence because criminals carry guns. We decent, law abiding citizens, should also have guns - otherwise they would win and decent people would lose." - James Earl Jones.
The Second Amendment of the American Constitution states that every U.S. citizen has the right to own a gun: "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" (Constitution, 160). No matter what situations take place in the world that right should never be taken away. American tragedies involving guns such as Columbine, West Hollywood bank robbery, and The DC Sniper have never prompted a social outcry for gun control so, in light of new tragedies such as Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and the Aurora Movie Theatre shooting. Why such a cry for gun control now and not in the past? The birth of guns started in China, where gunpowder was first created. In the ninth century huo yao, charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur was blended into a powder by alchemist and was used to treat skin infections. Learning quickly that gunpowder could be used in bombs, mines, and other weapons, gunpowder was transported to Europe likely over the Silk Road trade routes. Rival nations refined the gunpowder mixture: approximately 75 percent saltpeter, 15 percent charcoal, and 10 percent sulfur. In the tenth century, Chinese fire lances were the first guns. They were bamboo or metal tubes that projected flames and shrapnel at their targets. By the sixteenth century, European firearms had become far more advanced than their counterparts in the East.
"God made man, Samuel Colt made them equal" (American Proverb). In 1836, Samuel Colt developed what we know as the revolver. Although guns were already in use Colt perfected what was known. He was the founder of Colt's Manufacturing Company and made the mass production of the revolver viable for the first time.