In Defense of the Second Amendment
As both a journalist and a gun owner I often wish that the American people cared for the Second Amendment as much as they do the First. Any high school student can think up three reasons why the First amendment shouldn’t be infringed, but can they do the same for the Second?
The first reason I can think of why the Second amendment should not be infringed is because gun control just doesn’t work to stop violence. There’s a misguided movement in this country to disarm law abiding citizens of the right to defend themselves in the name of protecting children. I use the term misguided because banning certain types of or all guns won’t do anything to stop school massacres just as banning heroin did nothing to stop overdoses. For example, an opioid addict can take a legal drug like OxyContin to get their fix. Similarly, a deranged individual can get their hands on a variety of household items to massacre children (knives, explosives, fire, or toxic gas).
While I’m sure that most everyday people who support gun control have good intentions in doing so, I can assure you that the people at the top, the puppet masters of the movement so to speak, have sinister intentions for wanting the disarmament of the American people. Even though it’s not explicitly stated in the text of the Bill of Rights, the writings of Founding Fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson make it clear that the Second Amendment wasn’t created for duck hunting; it was created for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. New Hampshire’s constitution makes this point explicit by including the Right of Revolution in its text. Article 10 of the Constitution of New Hampshire reads “Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.”
Plenty of people are quick to write off this kind of thinking as “paranoid conspiracy thinking” because they’ve spent most of their lives being taught to worship the state in public schools. To them I point out that history has proved me right. The Battle of Wounded Knee, the Bonus Army incident, Kent State shooting, and Waco siege are all examples of the US government massacring and oppressing its citizens.
Thomas Jefferson once said that a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have. That quote ought to be taught in every civics class on the planet. I’m amazed at how many of the same people who want Trump out of office also want the guns out of the hands of the American people. Do they not understand that should their gun grab be successful the only ones with the guns will be law enforcement and military; two organizations that follow the orders of Donald Trump! It makes as much sense as putting a fox in charge of a chicken coop!
There are more people killed by law enforcement than by school shooters on any given year, hands down. To gun control advocates reading this, I ask you, are you sure you want them to be the only ones allowed to carry guns?
Editor’s note: Vincent is an HHS alum who graduated in 2016. He wrote for the Broadside during his time in high school and served as general editor during his senior year. Special thanks to him for writing this on short notice.
