Gun Control is NOT Losing your Target in the Recoil

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Guns, like many other issues of the day, have two distinct and opposing views with many people in the middle or undecided. Even following the tragic events of December 7, 1993, when unemployed handyman Colin Ferguson boarded the LIR’s 5:33 out of Penn Station. Ferguson waited until the train, filled with local commuters on their way home, pulled out of the Hicksville station before drawing a 9mm pistol. Ferguson then opened fire walking up and down the aisle shooting passangers indiscriminately, stopping only to reload, twice. When he was finished six were dead and 19 were injured. Gun control advocates think that outlawing guns would have stopped the killings from ever happening. While gun rights advocates believe just as strongly that it could have been stopped by one innocent person being armed and fighting back. In order for an issue to even be at hand, both sides must agree that there is a problem with guns and gun control. Both gun control and pro gun advocates do agree that there is a problem. Pro gunners say it is too hard to own a gun and the gun controllers say it is too easy to get a gun. Gun control advocates would argue that gun ownership is not a right and is not protected by the second amendment. They further believe guns are harmful to society. Gun control advocates also believe guns are not needed for self-defense. Gun-controllers use points such as, the constitution, specifically the second amendment, hunting and gun related assaults to try to prove their point; however most of their arguments are based in emotions and only have merit in the specific case they are trying to illustrate. For when you strip away the emotional rhetoric and examine issues logically, so called gun control laws fail to accomplish any of their stated goals. A lawyer once said, "If the facts are with you, argue the facts. If the facts are against you, argue the law." Now gun control advocates have added, “If the facts and the law are against you, argue the emotions!” Let us start this discussion with the simplest and strongest argument for gun rights. This argument comes to us from the very foundation of our great nation, the Constitution. On December 15, 1791, the new United States of America adopted the Bill of Rights the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, affirming the fundamental rights of its citizens. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of ... ... middle of paper ... ...ton D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989 The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: The Federalist Papers. 2003. 27 Mar. 2005 United States v. Cruikshank. 92 U.S. 542. U.S. Supreme Court. 1857 Online. Find Law. 30 Mar. 2005 United States v. Emerson. Criminal Action No. 6:98-CR-103-C United States District Court Texas, San Angelo Division. 1999 Find Law. 30 Mar. 2005 United States v. Emerson. No. 99-10331 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 2001 Online. Find Law. 30 Mar. 2005 United States. Department of Justice. Crime in the United States 2000 Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report. Washington D.C., 2000. United States. Department of Justice. Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms. Washington D.C.: May 1997. United States. Department of Justice. National Crime and Victims Survey. Washington D.C., 2003. Wright, James D., and Peter H. Rossi. Armed and Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms, Expanded Edition. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. 1994. Wright, James D., and Peter H. Rossi. The Armed Criminal in America: a Survey of Incarcerated Felons. Washington D.C., National Institute of Justice, 1997

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