The Second Amendment: Pros and Cons

 by Flixy Coote

At Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas 19 children and 2 teachers were shot dead on Tuesday morning by an 18 year old, the 213th mass shooting in the states this year. This has re-sparked century-long debates on the pros and cons of the 2nd amendment and the embedded issues within American society. 

Although there are not many, there are a few pros of the second amendment. There are arguments that having a gun is a deterrent for crime, it is said that when the victim displays a gun to the criminal/attacker they retreat 55% of the time. The second amendment is also said to bring a sense of security to some members of society, over 1 million home invasions happen every year in the states, and people knowing they have a weapon makes them feel a lot safer. It is also said that it allows for legal fairness in dangerous situations. Finally, across much of America it is a symbol of freedom for many. It symbolises trust and many recognise it as a part of American history, although this is controversial. 

However it can be argued that the cons of the right to have a gun outweigh the pros. The second amendment allows individuals to possess the gun but it does not create any requirements for responsibility, it comes under the state to sort it out if a problem occurs, and when doing this the problem has normally already occured. In Uvalde, the 18 year old male was allowed to buy two semi-automatic rifles with practically no background checks completed, the people selling them to him had no idea of his intentions and there lies the issue. The second amendment causes police resources to be wasted every year, thousands of police officers receive calls frequently from concerned citizens who are reporting suspicious behaviours from people with suspected firearms. Not only does this waste police time and resources if these calls are untrue, there have been a few examples in the past where the police have shot the suspects as they believe they are dangerous but in fact they are not armed. Another key argument is the argument of the age limits across America. If you are not able to buy alcohol until you are 21, why can you buy a gun at 18? Finally, there is the overwhelming amount of mass shootings that happen in America and for many it is unbelievable that you can go into a shop on the street and buy a weapon that is capable of killing hundreds of people when time after time it is shown that people are not responsible enough for keeping the country safe when more mass shootings have happened this year than there has been days. 

Although many people are calling for a change to the laws and some sense of assessment before being able to buy a gun, many people believe it is unlikely that this is going to happen due to the heavy pressure from mainly the NRA to keep laws in place as they do not believe it is the guns killing the people but the individual themselves. Yet people argue if more checks would be made, the dangerous individuals would not be allowed to get hold of the guns in the first place breaking down the argument. In my opinion, I do not think the Second amendment will ever be removed but I do believe that changes need to be made to it to ensure some background checks are made on people, and the age to buy a gun should be 21. America can not keep going on as it is and I hope that recent events will spark a large want for a change in American society.