Citizen Rights and Gun Control Laws

Some Americans feel that because guns are already regulated in so many other countries, America should just follow suit, while others believe guns both represent and help guarantee our independence, our liberty, and our freedom to make our own decisions. The founding fathers anticipated that gun control could become a serious issue in the future, so they added the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The Second Amendment states: "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." Most gun control activists focus in isolation on the beginning of the amendment where the founders wrote that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. They then try to argue that only the military or the National Guard should have access to guns, not individuals. In so arguing, however, they completely ignore the last part of the Second Amendment, which provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The founders obviously envisioned that the people would keep and use firearms to protect themselves and their country. Unfortunately many politicians don't see it that way. Yet, the Supreme Court has struck down firearm bans again and again. The 2008 Supreme Court case, District of Columbia vs. Heller, for example, shot down a handgun ban in Washington D.C. In that case, the Court determined that individuals have the right to purchase and own handguns for sport and self-defense purposes. Later, in McDonald vs. Chicago, the Court applied this ruling to the rest of the country (Smith 6). Handguns aren't the only type of firearm that the courts believe we have a legal right to own. In 1994, Congress passed a bill that instituted a ten year ban on all assault weapons and high capacity clips. It later expired in 2004 because Congress did not have enough votes to extend it.