Why The Second Amendment Matters

I remember when Washington D.C.’s handgun ban was challenged in the Supreme Court. I celebrated the Court’s decision not because I wanted to carry a handgun in Washington D.C., but because of the implications for my Second Amendment rights, and for the Second Amendment rights of all Americans. I find it ironic that the nation’s capital, where countless patriots had fought for our rights and given us the freedoms we enjoy, is one of the most extreme examples of gun control in the country. Despite this, the violent crime in DC is one of the highest in the country.

The sad fact is that gun control will work TO AN EXTENT in a small place like Washington DC where there is high concentration of criminal elements. It is also a fact, however, that a complete ban on the private, personal ownership of guns will never eliminate violent gun crime. Anyone who claims otherwise needs to only look at places like the United Kingdom and Australia, in which private gun ownership is almost completely banned. Violent crime remains.
Since gun control legislation happens at both a federal and state level, it affects both areas which are plagued with crime and areas with no crime at all. In my home state of Maryland, for example, it is nonsensical to introduce gun legislation that affects both crime-ridden Baltimore City and northern rural/suburban Baltimore County. The gun control laws may make it moderately difficult for a thug in the city to legally acquire a firearm, but it also makes it difficult for the law-abiding hunter to do the same. Gun control legislation is always defended by claims that it is “for the greater good,” meaning that law-abiding citizens must forfeit their rights in order to reap the benefits of a safer society. This is the most fallacious argument in defense of gun control that I have heard. Any fool can realize that gun control only disarms the law-abiding citizen; if a criminal, actual or aspiring, wants a gun, he will find a way to get one, legally or otherwise. Gun control actually makes it more of a hassle to acquire a firearm than purchasing one illegally on the black market, in most cases. Why would a criminal wait for days of background checks to buy a gun which would be registered with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, and then use that gun in a violent crime?

Unfortunately, some criminals do just that. The South Korean maniac who shot more than thirty students at Virginia Tech purchased his guns legally. Of course, he had no intention or chance of surviving his rampage, so the legalities of his actions were irrelevant to him. Gun control wouldn’t have stopped him from massacring his fellow college students; it may have just impeded him. Of course, if Virginia Tech hadn’t had a complete ban of firearms on campus, specifically in regards to legal concealed carry, a brave student could have ended his rampage prematurely with a few well-placed shots.

People lament about the death of our nation’s students, and then support legislation that bans those students’ means to protect themselves. Such logic is so unbelievably flawed that it makes you wonder why these people are even allowed to vote.

Another purpose of the Second Amendment is to ensure the people’s right to rise up against their government if it becomes tyrannical; it is their last defense of freedom and liberty. This is the reason that our founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment into the Constitution. This is often derided by gun control advocates, who call the defenders of such a notion lunatic conspiracy theorists. Of course, those same advocates are actively pursuing legislation that will allow the government to take away the American citizens’ last defense against tyranny and despotism from that same government. Again, this logic boggles the mind; it is only defensible with the most extreme self-delusion and abandonment of good sense.
Many people in this country are actively working to destroy everything that our founding fathers cherished and fought for. The Second Amendment is the very last defense against such people; it is the last utility that patriotic Americans have to defend their freedom, liberty, and way of life, in addition to themselves, their property, and the well-being of their loved ones. Any encroachment on our Second Amendment rights must be challenged ferociously, because any ban or restriction on one type of firearm is a precursor to further gun control. Give gun control legislators an inch, and they’ll take a mile. Where will they draw the line? The answer is that they won’t draw a line; they’ll erase the Second Amendment altogether if given the chance.

As Charlie Daniels once sang: “They want to take my guns away, and that would be just fine; if you take them away from the criminals first, I’d gladly give you mine!” While I don’t think Mr. Daniels would give up his guns in any case, his logic in this lyric is solid. I know that I won’t be giving up my Second Amendment rights, come Hell or high water. Imagine an army of citizens with this resolve! The gun control nuts and the government would certainly have their dirty hands full.