“Guns don’t kill people, gun control laws kill people”, said Chuck Baldwin. Gun control has always been a highly controversial topic. Due to the vagueness of the second amendment which 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.” Unfortunately, laws are infringing us upon our right to self-defense.  Most criminals get their weapons from family members, friends and in extreme cases, some make their own weapons. You can go on YouTube and search things such as “how to make a gun” and find tutorials. Gun control won’t do much. The problem with gun control laws is that they are a flawed policy and never go through as planned.    
      
            Taking away guns would go against the second amendment. Not only does it go against the second amendment, but also it is unpatriotic because it goes against Americans’ way of life. Considering there are over 300 million privately owned firearms, (Tucci 1) it would take years before all guns were confiscated. In California when a ban on guns was put, it took 6 weeks to take 1200 guns away from only 723 people.  However, even after those changes there would still be cases where people obtained banned weapons. Why put gun control in action when criminals still have a wide range of weapons to choose from? Instead of banning guns, we should increase the cost of guns and ammunition; this will reduce the criminals’ ability to obtain them.

            History shows that when drastic changes such as amendments are put into place the desired effects are not met. The opposite happens most often. An example of this is the 18th Amendment, where in 1920 Congress prohibited alcohol to reduce crimes and other social problems that come with drinking. After this change was made, it proved to be difficult to uphold such a ban and it began a wave of organized crime. Bootlegging became serious business. Knowing they made a mistake in 1933 Congress reversed this by the 21st amendment. The same thing will happen if guns are to be banned.

“Gun free zones, are actually free killing zones” says Chuck Baldwin. If only law-abiding citizens follow gun control laws how will we defend ourselves from criminals? If criminals knew that citizens could also carry a gun, wouldn’t that make them think twice before robbing people? Having a gun would make people feel more secure knowing that they could also carry firearms. In 1977, a shooting took place at Pearl High School; a student killed two classmates and injured seven students. An assistant Principle, who was armed, intervened and held the student at gunpoint until the police arrived. Going back to the Sandy Hooks incident, a first grade teacher Victoria Soto, hid her kids in a closet. When she was asked where were they were she said they were in the gym, she was shot for lying to the shooter. If Victoria was armed she may have saved not only herself but everyone else that was shot after.

One person who believes that gun control will eliminate problems is a man named Sean McElwee. He argues that "tons of other countries have reduced violence by reducing guns," and subsequently cites Australia as his case-in-point. However, Australia’s highest year for gun murders was in 2006- after the ban. Also, there was a 46% increase in assault rifles and a 6% increase in the robberies after the firearm ban was implemented. Sexual assault in Australia rose 30%, and overall crimes rose over 42 %, (Fulkerson 1). In addition to that there was a survey conducted for the reasons why people buy guns, more than half of the people with guns said they have it for self-defense, target shooting, and/or hunting.

To conclude, all the points stated in the previous paragraphs show how gun control is a flawed policy. Whether it’s because citizens would be defenseless or because it would be against the second amendment. Also as the 18th amendment foreshadowed gun control laws will result in possible new unwanted crimes. Therefore it would be unreasonable to neglect what history has taught us. Now the question arises "Does the second amendment really guarantee an individual 'the right to keep and bear arms?"


Works cited
"Teen Pleads Innocent In High School Shooting." CNN. Cable News Network, 2 Oct. 1977. Web. 14 Dec. 2013 http://www.cnn.com/US/9710/02/miss.shooting.folo/index.html?_s=PM:US
U.S. Constitution. Art./Amend. XII, Sec. 3  http://www.history.com/topics/18th-and-21st-amendments 
Fulkerson, Zack. "Gun Control Debate 2013: You Can't Argue With Facts." PolicyMic. Website, 11 June 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. http://www.policymic.com/articles/41481/gun-control-debate-2013-you-can-t-argue-with-facts 
Baldwin, Chuck. "Cartoons." Guns Don't Kill People; Gun Control Laws Kill People. RenewAmerica.com, 21 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/baldwin/130921.
"Gun Control Facts." By James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith. Just Facts, September 13, 2010. Revised 2/11/13.http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp#ownership. 
Tucci, Peter. "The Daily Caller." The Daily Caller. Website, 17 Dec. 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/17/why-im-against-gun-control/
"Gun Confiscation Begins in California." Tea Party. N.p., 21 Aug. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. http://www.teaparty.org/gun-confiscation-begins-in-california-27656/