In his first State of the Union address, President George Washington stated, “a free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined.” This assertion was in a section of his speech which was dedicated purely to advocating for the right of the American citizens to own firearms. It can be inferred that Washington believed that gun control itself was not the problem, but rather how people used or viewed guns. Many of the founding fathers of the United States such as Noah Webster, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson agreed with Washington in this belief that the right of citizens to bear arms should not ever be infringed (Petersen, 2015). It was on this strong principle that a nation was formed. Today, there is an imminent threat that this principle
…show more content…
Throughout most of America’s history, a firearm has been the common weapon of choice for defense. According to the Washington Times, since 2007, the number of Americans who own concealed carry weapon permits has soared from 4.6 million to approximately 12.8 million. During the same time period, murder rates in the United States dropped by nearly twenty-five percent (Howell, 2015). When studied together, these statistics simply display that when a greater number of citizens own and carry firearms, less homicides occurred. One of the intentions of stricter gun control laws is to control or even eliminate criminal activity, predominantly gun violence, but it is seen here that an expanse in the ownership of guns rather than restriction on them has correlated with a decrease in the number of crimes committed.
If criminals are the ones with the weapons, who is going to be there to stop them? According to Gun Owners of America, approximately 2.5 million times in one year was a gun used by a citizen for self-defense. Two hundred thousand of those times were by women defending themselves from sexual assault. If gun possession was not allowed, there are two hundred thousand women who would have been raped, violated, and possibly even …show more content…
Throughout history, weaponry has been created for many uses: in time of war as a tool of defense in battle, in time of hunger to slay animals for their meat, and in time of harvest to enhance the collection of crops. There are many uses for a gun, more than just self-defense or to act out violence. Guns can be, and often are, used to hunt animals in the wild for their meat so that humans can eat. “In 2012, the average American consumed 71.2 pounds of red meat (beef, veal, pork, and lamb) and 54.1 pounds of poultry (chicken and turkey), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture” (Molla, 2015). That’s a lot of meat for one person, and that consumption would have been impossible without the slaughter of innocent animals, most likely by a
Throughout most of America’s history, a firearm has been the common weapon of choice for defense. According to the Washington Times, since 2007, the number of Americans who own concealed carry weapon permits has soared from 4.6 million to approximately 12.8 million. During the same time period, murder rates in the United States dropped by nearly twenty-five percent (Howell, 2015). When studied together, these statistics simply display that when a greater number of citizens own and carry firearms, less homicides occurred. One of the intentions of stricter gun control laws is to control or even eliminate criminal activity, predominantly gun violence, but it is seen here that an expanse in the ownership of guns rather than restriction on them has correlated with a decrease in the number of crimes committed.
If criminals are the ones with the weapons, who is going to be there to stop them? According to Gun Owners of America, approximately 2.5 million times in one year was a gun used by a citizen for self-defense. Two hundred thousand of those times were by women defending themselves from sexual assault. If gun possession was not allowed, there are two hundred thousand women who would have been raped, violated, and possibly even …show more content…
Throughout history, weaponry has been created for many uses: in time of war as a tool of defense in battle, in time of hunger to slay animals for their meat, and in time of harvest to enhance the collection of crops. There are many uses for a gun, more than just self-defense or to act out violence. Guns can be, and often are, used to hunt animals in the wild for their meat so that humans can eat. “In 2012, the average American consumed 71.2 pounds of red meat (beef, veal, pork, and lamb) and 54.1 pounds of poultry (chicken and turkey), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture” (Molla, 2015). That’s a lot of meat for one person, and that consumption would have been impossible without the slaughter of innocent animals, most likely by a