Every four years, during the presidential race, gun laws manage to make their way among the highly debated topics argued between candidates. During this time, I am astounded at some of the social media posts that I see that are against gun control. As far as I can tell, the majority of this negativity towards gun control stems from a wrongful interpretation of what gun control really is as well as a wrongful interpretation of the Second Amendment. I would like to attempt to dispel these notions and wrongful interpretations.
First, we should look at what gun control actually entails. It seems like many of these people that are against gun control think that it means that the government will take all of there weapons. I agree that this would be an overreach of power. However, that is not what gun control entails. No one is going to come into your house and take your guns. Gun control consists of making it harder for the wrong people to come into possession of firearms as well as limiting civilian access to assault rifles. This means that you would be free to own a hunting rifle or a pistol for self defense. However, it would make it illegal for people outside of the military to own assault weapons. Frankly, I don't see how someone could be upset over that issue. There is absolutely no reason that a civilian needs an AR-15 in their home. It's as simple as that. Unfortunately, we live in a world where if guns like these get into the wrong hands, the consequences can be disastrous. That is what gun control, in its essence, aims to prevent. Someone with a violent and criminal past should not be able to walk into a gun store and leave in twenty minutes with a firearm. That is dangerous to the community. Another issue is gun shows. Gun sellers at these gun shows do not do extensive background checks, so the probability of a dangerous person buying a firearm increases with these unregulated shows. Furthermore, gun control aims to prevent a disastrous outcome by tightening background check regulations, limiting gun shows, and prohibiting civilian use of assault weapons.
Most of the people that I see that are avidly against gun control claim the Second Amendment as their defense. They say that that protects them from the government "taking their guns." It's actually quite sad how few people actually know what the Second Amendment is and what it means. Here is the description of the Second Amendment taken directly from the U.S. Constitution: "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." I don't know what got lost in translation over the past 250 years, but this does not simply say that you have a right to own guns. It says that you have the right to raise up against the government if it loses the qualifications of a free state. This is very different than "the government can't take my guns because the Second Amendment says that I'm allowed to own them."
All in all, I am just frustrated and saddened at the many U.S. citizens that are too apathetic to learn and rightly interpret the policies that are included in gun control as well as the true meaning of the Second Amendment. If citizens would pay closer attention to these two things, I believe we would have a safer and more informed country.
