Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
School shooting and gun epidemic essays
School shootings and gun laws
School shooting and gun epidemic essays
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: School shooting and gun epidemic essays
The Rights to Bear Arms
Gun control is a very controversial issue among society at present. Many feel guns are the cause of a great amount of crime. This has been an especially popular topic recently in lieu of the shooting at Columbine and other high schools across the country. Are these crimes reason to take away our freedom to bear arms? I do not believe so. The average person uses guns mainly as a means of protection. If limitations are placed on guns, they will only stop the average American from obtaining a gun. The real criminals out there will still be able to obtain guns through the black market. Every American should have the right to protect them self.
The second amendment to the constitution of the United States says, “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.”1 This amendment enforced a practice that had been occurring in America for years. When the constitution was forming, there was not a large standing army. Many inhabitants were minutemen, who needed a gun to help protect society; this is why the militia was mentioned in the amendment. The militia clause is merely a rationale for preserving the right.1 Even if today's well-regulated militia were the National Guard, the Second Amendment still protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Many people feel this amendment should be changed, or more restrictions should be placed on people who want to purchase guns. Some believe that guns hurt more than they help, even though statistics prove otherwise. I feel that guns are not as big of a threat to society as people are lead to believe, mainly by the media. Fatal gun accidents declined by almost sixty percent from 1975 to 1995, even though the number of guns per capita increased by almost forty percent.2 The cart below shows that a number of crimes have started decreasing, even though sales in guns has increased. Recently, the media has shown many incidents of shootings in schools. This is nothing new, as the media makes it out to be. Schools have had trouble with crime for many years. Years ago metal detectors were installed in schools across the nation to stop violence in schools. These detectors were placed because there was a problem in the past. Crime related to guns has, in fact, gone down. The reality does not...
... middle of paper ...
...were to happen here. Although we are a democracy, as more freedoms are taken away, we move farther and farther away from the very idea of America. The history of mankind has many examples of what happens when the state becomes too powerful and there is no check on it by an armed population.5 It is impossible for the government to control the sales of gun through the black market, which provides these dangerous weapons to murders and drug dealers. Shouldn’t it be the government’s duty to allow the average law abiding citizen to protect them self.
Bibliography
Bieber, James D. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms. http://www.yaf.com/philosophy.html
Gun Accidents. http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvacci.html. 2/13/2000.
Illinois State Firearm Laws. http://nraila.org/research/19990716-BillofRightsCivilRights-015.html. September 1997.
Larson, Erik. "The Story of a Gun", The Atlantic Monthly. January 1993.
Origional Intent and Purpose of the Second Amendment. http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndpur.html, 1/12/2000.
Schools and Gun Violence. http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvscho.html. 6/13/199
Second Amendment Stuff. http://secondamendmentstuff.com/. 1/16/2000
In America guns have been a part of the country’s society since it’s birth. Throughout history the citizens of the US have used firearms to protect the nation, protect their families, hunt for food and engage in sporting activities. The issue of Guns and gun control is complex. Weighing the rights and liberties of the individual against the welfare and safety of the public has always been a precarious balancing act. In the United States, gun control is one of these tumultuous issues that has both sides firmly entrenched in their positions. Those parties in favor of gun ownership and the freedom to use and keep arms, rely on the fact that the provision for such rights is enshrined in their constitution. In this climate of growing violence, rife with turmoil and crime, gun advocates feel more than ever that their position is justified. As citizens of the “Land of the Free” possessing a gun is a fundamental right, and may even be a necessity... Anti- gun lobbyists point to the same growing violence and gun related crimes in an effort to call on the government to take action. By enacting more laws and stricter control, these people not in favor of guns feel society would be better safer.
“Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources”, which eventually leads to “individuals and organizations [who are able to] keep more resources than others, and these ‘winners’ use their power and influence to maintain social institutions” (Openstax College 16), and it seems that the “winners” of OITNB were taking advantage of their position of power and influence, and abusing it. Instead of maintaining social institutions, they created havoc. In addition, German sociologist, Georg Simmel believed that “conflict can help integrate and stabilize a society” (Openstax College 17). However, although there has always been passive conflict that kept reoccurring in the prison, nothing was done about it. When a conflict finally ensued, it was volatile, and did not not result in stability. Hence, a power shift from the powerful, to powerless, due to disagreement of the distribution of power is seen the main plot of the
As controversial as he is, Mark Twain has been accused by some, of being a racist writer, whose writing is offensive to black readers. His novels have also been labeled as promoting slave-era stereotypes. Therefore, many people believe The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn deserves no place on today's bookshelves. To those of us who have delved wholeheartedly into Twain's wisdom and humanity, such accusations come across as ludicrous. To Twain's critics, the novel is superficially racist for the most obvious reason: many characters continually use the word "nigger". Yet, since the book takes place in the south, twenty years before the Civil War, such semantics were common occurrences. Therefore, should Twain be criticized for being historically correct? One should hope not. A closer reading of the novel also reveals Twain's serious satirical intent. In one scene, for instance, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion:
The largest debate as to why the novel is a racist work is because of the use of the "N-word." Although there is an abundance of evidence pointing towards the theory that Mark Twain was a racist, therefore making the book itself a reflection of his ideologies, Huckleberry Finn is created as a form of social commentary, on the racism of the time period. As reflected in the essays in Satire or Evasion?, the perspectives on the views of racism in Huckleberry Finn vary widely (Arac 113) and it can be concluded that “there is no single ‘black’ position on Huckleberry Finn any more than there is a monolithic white one” (Leonard
The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution 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.
On a superficial level The Adventures Huckleberry Finn might appear to be racist, and for the most obvious reason: many characters use the word “nigger” throughout the novel. But since the action of the book takes place in the south twenty years before the Civil War, it would be amazing if they didn’t use that word. A closer reading also reveals Twain’s serious satiric intent. In one scene, for instance, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion. “Good gracious! anybody hurt?” she asks. “No'm,” comes the answer. “Killed a nigger” (Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn 1409). But anyone who imagines that Mark Twain meant this literally is missing the point. Rather, Twain is using this casual dialogue ironically, as a way to underscore the chilling truth about the old south, that it was a society where perfectly “nice” people didn’t consider the death of a black person worth their notice. To drive the point home, Twain has the lady continue: “We...
The most evident representation of racism in the novel is presented in the conversation between Huck and Aunt Sally about the supposed steamboat explosion:
...elling example of how citizens took the privilege of owning weapons for their own security in the home and nation, and used it for venomous reasons. A concept that was effective in the eleventh century lost its value as citizens began to ignore their responsibilities as gun owning United States citizens. The Federalist foresaw that citizens were going to expunge their right, yet it was still ratified in the Constitution. The discernment of a plan to execute seven individuals conveys how citizens have ignored both the meaning of their rights and their responsibilities. A few individual’s decision to configure the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, consequentially led to a stringent of regulations placed on gun owners. “Violence is an evil thing, but when the guns are all in the hands of me without respect for human rights, then men are really in trouble”- Louis L’Amour.
Americans have made it clear they reject most government intrusions on their basic civil rights, including the right of gun ownership. According to an April 18, 1994 study by Penn and Schoen Associates, Inc. as many as 85 percent of American adults said they are unwilling to forfeit basic civil liberties even if it could enhance their personal safety. 75 percent agreed that police and the justice systems couldn’t protect them; people said they have to take more responsibility for safeguarding themselves. 62 percent said the need for personal guns ownership is increasing, and a majority is unwilling to accept laws that restrict gun ownership greatly.
The right of someone to take their own life has been a topic of debate since the time of Romans. In this paper euthanasia will be discussed including the history, current legislation, reasons for, reasons against, and the authors opinion on the topic. With an aging population, increasing lifespan, and an increasing rate of cancers euthanasia will become a larger topic of discussion in the years to come.
This debate has produced two familiar interpretations of the Second Amendment. Advocates of stricter gun control laws have tended to stress that the amendment’s militia clause guarantees nothing to the individual and that it only protects the states’ rights to be able to maintain organized military units. These people argue that the Second Amendment was merely used to place the states’ organized military forces beyond the federal government’s power to be able to disarm them. This would guarantee that the states would always have sufficient force at their command to abolish federal restraints on their rights and to resist by arms if necessary. T...
“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.” The right of all Americans to bear arms is a right the Founding Fathers held to equal importance as the Constitution itself. Gun control laws directly violate this right and therefore should not even be under consideration. Even if that issue is overlooked, gun control advocates state that in order to reduce firearm related violence, gun control laws must be implemented to remove the violence caused by firearms. Although this may seem reasonable, the consequences of such laws are ironically counterproductive; they exacerbate the problem instead of fixing it. Besides the fact that the American Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to bear arms, the idea of restricting gun ownership in order to reduce firearm-related violence would ultimately fail given the previous experiments of gun control in England and in numerous states.
The second amendment states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The Founding Fathers included this in the Bill of Rights because they feared the Federal Government might oppress the population if the people did not have the means to defend themselves as a nation or individuals.
Euthanasia is growing towards legal acceptance in the United States where four states have already passed legalization laws in an attempt to relieve the pain of suffering patients. Even if euthanasia becomes a legal practice in the United States, lingering moral issues will continue to cause more lawsuits in the future. It is morally right for patients suffering from persistent, severe pain to choose euthanasia as a medical treatment option. In the following pages, I will, first, explain what euthanasia refers to and some details about what it entails. Second, I will describe all the necessary features about what it means to be suffering from constant and severe pain. Next, I will explore the philosophical attitudes toward the euthanasia of Dax Cowart and Jack Kevorkian who have strong philosophical attitudes toward euthanasia. Finally, I will tie all these points together to prove why euthanasia is a morally acceptable choice for a patient suffering from constant, severe pain.
Though it may be received as controversial as to why Mark Twain presented so much racism, it can also be seen as a way to put the reality of racism in the eyes of others. Most white people in the 1880s supported the establishment of slavery and saw it as acceptable to say the N-word. Mark Twain wanted these attitudes to change, and his book furthered this mission. In today, many of these beliefs have changed, and people now realize how wrong slavery was. Though the establishment may be gone, many stereotypical thoughts have yet to be diminished. In chapter 26, the duke says; "Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; and first you know the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and not borrow some of it?" (Twain 26) The duke basically tells Huck that all black men are thieves, even though he is a thief himself. Many people in today’s society fear black people, and often accuse them of crimes they did not commit. We can see this today through the cops who continue to shoot and kill innocent, unarmed black men. The book without even knowing it, offers us proof as to why certain things are believed today. People back then thought of back people as thieves, and this has yet to