Nystrom 1 Ellen Nystrom Kristen Foster CO150.

402 11-24-2013

Not Everyone Should Have the Right to Bear Arms Intended audience: parents in the United States who own guns What would be the perfect present for your 5-year old son on his birthday? Are you choosing between a toy, a football, a bike, or maybe a gun? Earlier this year, a 2-year old girl was shot by her 5-year old brother by accident (Associated Press). They boy had received a rifle from his parents for his birthday which he tested out in their backyard, and accidentally shot his little sister to death. Is this what the second amendment has resulted in? Today, there are 1.69 million children in America under the age of 18 who live in a home with firearms that are unlocked and loaded (Aborn). The availability of owning a gun in the U.S. is too easy, which results in guns ending up in the wrong peoples hands. Firearms are not toys, they are devices designed to harm others. Not everyone should be able to own a gun, since owning a gun results in harming others consistently. The exigent and controversial issue about gun control in the U.S. has been discussed frequently recently. Especially because of the school shootings all around the U.S., with students and teachers getting harmed and in some cases killed. The availability of owning a gun in this country is a big factor in this case. The wrong people get their hands on a gun, which results in unconventional deaths and tragedy for the people involved. Having firearms in a house causes a lot of accidents. Accidents such as school shootings, because the availability of getting your hands on a gun is too easy. There has been 17 school shootings in the United States over the last 10 months (Aborn). What factors allow

Nystrom 2 the children get their hands on firearms? The firearms in ones home have become normality; it is no longer seen as a dangerous weapon that can kill a person in a hundredth of a second. Since owning a gun is considered normal by several parents, some children will automatically learn the same behaviors, seeing the firearm as a toy more than a weapon. For example, as a child I had enormous respect of guns, and I could not even imagine the fear I would have had if I had known that my parents owned one. However, when I talk to people here in Colorado they say that it is very common for parents to teach their children to shoot, and to handle a gun. This might only make the children comfortable with firearms, not respecting them or knowing what harm they can do. It is obvious that this is a huge part of why the children can get their hands on a gun, which is a theory that might also be a big part of why the U.S. has had so many school shootings lately. If the availability of firearms would be reduced, and removed from the family homes, school shootings would probably decrease since children would not have the same availability to get a gun. I am from Sweden, where the gun laws are significantly different from here in the U.S. To register for a gun in Sweden you are required to prove a genuine reason to possess a firearm (Alpers, Wilson). The reasons that are valid for people to get gun is hunting, sports or being part of the police force or military. The person applying for the firearm license must also go through firearm safety training and pass a theoretical test to be approved. The difference in availability is huge between the two countries, and that is because of the different laws. If the U.S. would take after Sweden in this issue, the people would probably feel safer in their country since the public shootings would have to decrease. Statistically the U.S. experienced 10.36 deaths per 100.000 people due to firearms during one year (Gostin) while Sweden only has 1.47 deaths per 100.000 people (gunpolicy.org). This clearly shows how the difference in the number of ownerships of guns among the inhabitants can reflect the firearm related deaths.

Nystrom 3 Firearms are weapons used in war, designed to kill. Is that really something we want to have in our homes, and around our children? As a parent, you want the best for your children. Is it the best decision to have a weapon in the house, a weapon that could be used to harm others? It should not be legal to own something that can cause so much harm in this world. In an peer-reviewed article written by Lawrence O. Gostin, who according to Wikipedia is a law professor who specializes in public health law (Wikipedia), he questions the right to bear arms. He further in the articles asks why is the right to bear arms fundamental, when it appears that firearms - designed to cause injuries or death are antithetical to social order and public safety? (Gostin). In his article he brings up the question of the gun ownership should be a fundamental right, which we all should ask ourselves. Furthermore in the same article, Gostin argues that the second amendment is different from the other fundamental rights in America, such as the freedom of speech, religion, petition, press, religion and assembly. The reasoning he makes about this in his article is that the second amendment should not be considered a right, like the others, because the right to bear arms has no such intrinsic value but rather is a right to possess and use a consumer product one that is inherently dangerous (Gostin). People who are for the right to bear arms often claim that they need firearms in their homes to feel safe. What makes it safe to have a weapon in the house? Wikipedia defines that the Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms from infringement. This shows that the gun laws are part of peoples idea of liberty. Nevertheless, it is not a very strong argument to prove why people should be able to own such a violent possession. Other than hunters, the firearms in peoples houses are not used. Do Americans own a gun only because they can, or maybe because they want to feel as if they are benefiting from the fact that they have the right to own a gun? Society would be safer as a unit without the majority of the houses having a gun. It is firearms that cause school

Nystrom 4 shootings, so by taking away the reason to the issue, the shootings would in theory decrease. There are 101.05 firearms per 100 people in The United States today (Alpers, Rossetti, Wilson). This source indicates that there are actually more guns than people in this country. How can we not see that this is the reason why our children get their hands on the guns, which also has lead to the many school shootings around the U.S.? Are we too naive to believe all the statistics and facts that support this? Right now, the U.S. is ranked as the number one country in the world in private gun ownership, and the annual deaths resulting from firearms in the U.S. is increasing with every year (Alpers, Rossetti, Wilson). If there will be no changes in the gun laws, the numbers will keep raising, along with the numbers of firearms per American inhabitant. In an op-ed article on a hunting website, the different reasons why Americans own firearms is discussed. One of the reasons the author brings up is family legacy. He further in the article states that family legacy is one of the biggest reasons why Americans own guns. The reason for it is because several children receive firearms as gifts (Chastain). Giving your children firearms as gifts will in some cases decrease their respect of the weapon, which might lead to them not knowing what harm they can do with the firearms. This is one of the problems that need to be solved. Another argument by Americans who advocate their right to bear arms is that they need the firearms for self-defense (Chastain). It is understandable that people would want a gun to protect themselves from others who also own a gun. However, if no one owned a gun it would mean that no one would have to protect themselves against guns. Although, this might only happen in the perfect world, it is the logic in that specific statement that shows that we do not need firearms in our houses. Americans might feel the need to protect themselves at all time, which can be the reason to why they carry firearms. The logic in that reason is the same as for example wearing a life-jacket under your clothes

Nystrom 5 just in case of a flood. You cannot protect yourselves from everything, all the time. In this case, it will probably do more harm than it will protect you, wearing a gun on you at all time. No one could have missed out on the fact that the second amendment is very important to several people in the U.S. because of the feeling of liberty and freedom. In the article Right to Bear Arms' Decision Would Improve Gun Control" the author Jacobs specifies that gun control would not work in this country. He further states that this is because of the fear people that own firearms have of losing them to the government. Jacobs explains that by introducing gun control and having people register their guns would only increase the black market, because of the fear they have of the government taking their firearms away. The right of owning a gun is not a part of American liberty because the only thing that guns causes is injuries and war. In the scholarly written article The Right To Bear Arms, A Uniquely American Entitlement, Dr. Gostin agrees. Furthermore, he argues that firearms can not be intrinsic to liberty because they have a unique potential to cause serious injury and death, posing a distinctive threat to social order (Gostin). This is something we all need to have in our minds. In conclusion, firearms are not something we would want around our children because of the major harm it could cause to people around us. The gun availability in the U.S. is too easy as for now, which leads to public shootings and people getting harmed. We cannot trust everybody with owning such damaging and unsafe weapon, which means that not everyone should be given the responsibility of owning a gun. I am not saying that we should forbid people to buy firearms, I am saying that the U.S. needs some kind of gun control and a way to keep track of all the people that own guns. By introducing some kind of gun control to this country, we would create a safer environment for our children during their growth, and also a securer society in whole. Considering all public shootings this country has been trough the last few years, something needs to change with the way the gun laws are set up right now.

Nystrom 6 By looking and analyzing how other countries deal with their gun issues, the U.S. could learn something and maybe take after some of those countries, as for example Sweden.

Nystrom 7 Work Cited Aborn, Richard. "Preventing School Shootings Starts With Gun Safety At Home." Christian Science Monitor 31 Oct. 2013: N.PAG. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Alpers, Philip and Marcus Wilson. Guns in Sweden: Firearms, Armed Violence and Gun Law. Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. (2013) GunPolicy.org, Web. 18 November 2013. Alpers, Philip, Amlie Rossetti and Marcus Wilson. Guns in The United States: Firearms, Armed Violence and Gun Law. Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. (2013) GunPolicy.org. Web. 18 November 2013. Associated Press. 5-year-old Ky. Boy Kills 2-year-old Sister With His Rifle. The Washington Times. 1 May 2013. The Washington Times. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Chastain, Russ. Why Own a Gun? Exploring the Reasons Why People Choose to Own Guns. Hunting/Shooting. (2013). About.com Web. 20 Nov. 2013 Gostin, Lawrence O. "The Right to Bear Arms: A Uniquely American Entitlement." JAMA: Journal of The American Medical Association 304.13 (2010): 1485-1486. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. Jacobs, James B. "'Right to Bear Arms' Decision Would Improve Gun Control." USA Today n.d.: (2002) Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. "Lawrence O. Gostin." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. "Second Amendment to the United States Constitution." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.