Should Americans Be Allowed To Own Guns Persuasive Essay

Have you ever thought about buying a gun? Well, 45,222 people died due to gun-related injuries in 2020. American citizens should not be permitted to own guns. Robbers could easily walk into a gun store and purchase one. It’s not just robbers though, people who buy guns for protection might accidentally shoot someone. Guns kill tons of people and maim many more.

There are simple strategies robbers use to obtain guns from stores without stealing. One of which is the Straw purchase. This is where a person who may not legally own a gun walks into a store with a person who is allowed to. The person who cannot purchase the gun hands the gun to their companion who then pays for it. This is illegal, but unfortunately hard for the government to keep an eye on. Jay Watchel, who is part of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) said, "Let's be honest. If someone wants a gun, it's obvious the person will not have difficulty buying a gun, either legally or through the extensive United States black market.” This means that guns are easy to obtain. This is vital because guns being easy to obtain could result in many robberies and deaths. It could also result in the killing of a very important person like the president or vice president. This could then result in the fall of our economy and if an important country like America went into chaos, the whole world might too. Then everyone would kill everyone with the easy-to-obtain guns. All of this happened because America didn’t remove the second amendment. If they do remove it, this likely won’t happen. It’s not all about getting the gun, what they do with that gun is what matters the most.

Many people who buy for protection may accidentally shoot someone, or even themselves. In fact, 28.3 percent of unintentional firearm fatalities are due to playing with a gun. That’s a very large percentage of people who are that immature and yet still allowed to own a gun. If people continue to have the ability to legally own a gun, they should at least have to take a test to lower the number of immature gun owners. A person might also accidentally shoot someone who they mistook for a criminal. That would likely murder an innocent person. According to ProCon.org, approximately 50% of all unintentional fatal shootings were self-inflicted. This means that out of all the accidental deaths due to guns, half were done by “victim”. This leads back to the earlier statement of immature gun owners and needing to take a maturity “test”. Then the court would have to waste time dealing with something that could have easily been avoided if citizens weren’t allowed to retain guns. Well, isn’t this the second amendment? Yes, yes it is.

The second amendment was made over 2 centuries ago. Should we really follow a law of gun rights made when people could duel? Should we follow a rule made by the same people who kept it legal to own slaves? No, we shouldn’t. It was written in a time when everyone owned guns. They likely weren’t expecting change when writing it. Change happened, whether they were expecting it or not. If one thing can change, so can another. If the supreme court can’t change it, then they can change the way they interpret it. Take for example the interpretation that this was meant for the coast guard and police. The amendment 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”, but what people? It doesn’t clearly state the citizens of America, now does it.

The citizens of the United States of America should not be legally allowed to own guns. The coast guard and police most definitely should be allowed to own guns, but not American citizens.