OPINION
BY WILL GALLOWAY, Sophomore
In the wake of several horrific and tragic mass shootings, left wing politicians have raised calls to place restrictions on the right to own firearms in an effort to ensure public safety. While these calls have noble intentions, they would be counterproductive by disarming law-abiding gun owners and infringing on one of America’s basic liberties.
The purpose of the Second Amendment, the Constitutional provision that provides the basis of gun ownership, was to provide a last line of defense against tyranny. When the founders drafted this document, they were not concerned about deer hunters, but rather about tyrants.
Gun control advocates can point to several pieces of legislation, such as the Brady Bill, that promote firearm restrictions. They also point out that the Second Amendment could be interpreted to mean that groups, not individuals, can bear arms. The Supreme Court of the United States has disagreed with them on both counts.
The Supreme Court of the United States has consistently upheld the right to keep and bear arms “for traditionally lawful purposes” several times, most recently in Heller v. DC and McDonald v. Chicago. These traditionally lawful purposes include self defense, hunting, and target shooting.
Of these purposes, self defense is arguably the most important. Scott Galloway, a legal gun owner, recalls the story of a friend who used a firearm to prevent a burglary and perhaps save himself from harm.
“A friend of mine had an attempted robbery at an ATM, and because he was carrying a firearm, he was able to stop the robbery and the robber fled without doing any harm,” Galloway said.
Earlier in 2015, NBC Philadelphia reported on an attempted mass shooting in a barber shop, but the would-be shooter was stopped by a passerby who was carrying a concealed weapon.
Similarly, the Washington Times reports that the number Concealed Carry Permits has increased from 4 million to 12 million nationally since 2007, and in the same time murder rates have decreased by 25 percent.
Galloway, a CWP (Concealed Weapons Permit) holder, discussed the process of purchasing a firearm for both CWP holders and non-CWP holders.
“As a legal gun owner with a CWP, my sled check and background check have already been done, and I can legally buy a firearm with no waiting period. To acquire a CWP, you have to take an 8 hour class that includes gun safety practices and laws, and then fire 100 rounds in front of an instructor to demonstrate safe gun handling. After the class, you submit your fingerprints and they perform a criminal and mental background check.”
“If you don’t have a CWP, to buy a long gun you have to have a background check. The check is more extensive for handguns, and for those there is a three-day waiting period,” Galloway said.
In the aftermath of the 2015 Charleston AME shooting, a local prosecutor found that Dylan Roof both acquired his guns illegally, and broke several gun laws in the process of committing his awful act. This begs the question as to whether gun laws would be effective at all.
Chicago, a city with some of the most stringent anti-gun ownership laws, has some of the highest gun-related violence in the country. According to the Washington Post, 207 people have been wounded in mass shootings since 2013 there, and over 2,000 people were shot there this in 2015.
If adding more gun control laws would save lives, I would wholeheartedly support them. I would be willing to give up my right to hunt and shoot targets to save lives. But unfortunately, gun laws do not save lives, they make areas even less safe.
The answer is clear. There is a simple solution to both protect people and protect the constitutional right to keep and bear arms: by allowing people to own firearms. Firearms are a deterrent to crime and effective tool to protect people from attackers.
One final quote from Japan’s WWII Marshal Admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto, about American gun ownership. It’s just some food for thought.
“You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
