On Thursday, June 23rd, the Senate voted to extend consideration of bipartisan legislation banning the sale of guns to those on America's "no-fly" list.
Everyone knows we would be kidding ourselves to believe violence wasn't a major component of human nature. Humans have emotions, and humans tend to express those emotions through specific actions, and sometimes those actions are violent. Lately, the amount of violence throughout the world has increased by staggering numbers, and many Americans now feel it is time to take action. I am certainly one of them.
I do not believe that the presence of guns in our society perpetuates this sort of violence. If someone decides to buy a gun for self-defense or their own peace of mind, they are not suddenly compelled to go around using it. However, guns are often the weapon of choice for those who are going to commit a violent act, and by removing their right to access guns, we would make it that much harder for those acts to be carried out.
Surely the Second Amendment was written into the Constitution for a reason, and every upstanding American is entitled to own a gun. The thing is, the people who would be banned from purchasing guns would not be the typical upstanding Americans. They would be those who have earned a spot on the "no-fly" list, who must have done something to raise suspicion about their person. And stripping such people of this right does not in any way strip them of their American identity. It's really just the oldest form of punishment in the book. You do something wrong; you are stripped of certain privileges because your actions have shown you will not utilize those privileges properly. Kelly Kindergartener throws her toy at the other children; Kelly does not get to play with the toy anymore because she is not using it properly.
Gun control legislation is not meant to punish those who utilize their right to bear arms in the legal way it was intended. It is simply meant to protect everyone from the people who will abuse this privilege. No one will lose any rights if they haven't already done something wrong. The law, like the origin of the Second Amendment, is meant for protection. It is when we realize this simple fact, that we realize both sides are actually fighting for the same thing.
