FREE ESSAY ON GUN CONTROL

GUN CONTROL

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. These words are taken directly
from the United States Constitution's Bill Of Rights. This idea was made the second
amendment because of how important this basic right is. Everyone has the right to defend
themselves. The founding fathers of this country knew that when a people lose the ability
to defend themselves they also lose the ability to be free and thus the people are no
longer represented by the government, they are ruled by it. Denying law abiding citizens
the right to keep and bear arms is a mistake. And that grave miscalculation is painfully
illustrated in the senseless deaths of innocent people around the globe who were unable
to protect themselves.
Common sense dictates that when our freedom to protect ourselves is ripped from our
patriotic souls, we must protest. For the citizens of Great Britain this realization,
this basic instinct, came too late. In 1996 a madman went on a rampage killing 16
children and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland. Great Britain immediately passed gun
control laws that banned all private firearms. The police then used the firearms
registration records to go door to door and confiscate any guns that were not turned in.
Under the guise of making Britain a safer country the government opened Pandora's box.
The British people were left defenseless and vulnerable. 
It didn't take long for the British criminals to realize that they had total Carte
Blanche. By 1997 robberies had risen 81 percent in England and Wales. Assaults increased
53 percent and motor vehicle theft rose 51 percent (qtd. in Brown: 106). In fact, the
U.S. Department of Justice says a person is nearly twice as likely to be robbed,
assaulted, or have a vehicle stolen in Britain as in the United States. Now more than
ever people cower in fear, prisoners in their own homes, victims of a crime ravaged
society. These hopeful civilians sacrificed their rights for a politician's false promise
to protect them from crime. 
But it seems that no one in Australia was paying attention. In an all to familiar rampage
to end the existing problem of crime, the Australian government confiscated 640,000
firearms from law-abiding citizens in 1997. Once again hopeful citizens sacrificed their
rights for a politician's promise to protect them from crime, A promise British
politicians already proved they couldn't keep. In Australia crime of all types,
especially gun crimes increased dramatically. Armed robberies in Australia exploded, up
sixty-nine percent. In the state of Victoria, there was a 300 percent increase in
homicides committed with firearms. Assaults with guns, went up twenty-eight percent. Gun
murders rose nineteen percent and home invasions jumped twenty-one percent.(qtd. in Lott:
127) The crime rate skyrocketed because the only people who turned in their guns were
law-abiding citizens that never committed any. Criminals aren't allowed to own guns. So
what did the ban accomplish? Over the previous 25-year period, Australia had shown a
steady decrease both in homicide with firearms and armed robbery - until the ban. The ban
made it impossible for the Australian people to protect themselves.
Yet, in the face of such overwhelming evidence, gun control advocates continue to pursue
stricter laws. Stricter laws lead to registration. Registration leads to confiscation,
and the people of Britain and Australia have witnessed what happens when your guns are
confiscated. Analysts now say that the overall crime rate in Britain is roughly similar
to the United States and still rising. Australia's gun control laws are directly
responsible for the deaths of thousands of thousands of Her citizens. This is because of
one simple self-evident truth. 
When people can no longer defend themselves they can no longer be free. The American
people don't seem to understand this. The Nazi government of Pre-World War Two understood
this, and the European Jews soon came to understand this too. But the gun control
advocates remain in denial. Like most of America they are too optimistic. They believe
that crime will disappear once guns are outlawed. They also believe atrocities like those
that occurred during World War Two could never happen again. The truth however is very
simple. The path to the German death camps began with the disarming of the German people.

No government will ever effectively be able to keep guns out of the hands of criminals,
because it takes so few guns to meet their needs. That need will always be met by black
markets and smuggling. Writing in the May/June 2000 issue of the Medical Sentinel of the
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), Dr. Michael S. Brown writes that
while the British laws have disarmed law-abiding citizens
A black market has flourished, as usual with prohibitions, to supply criminal elements.
Up to 3 million illegal guns are in circulation in Britain, leading to a rise in drive-by
shootings and gangland-style executions
The British people have begun to realize the injustice they have suffered, but it may be
too little too late. Now they are reduced to fighting for a freedom they have already
lost. The impossible happens when people take their invasion of basic human rights
sitting down. 
According to the U.S. Department of Justice not a single law enforcement officer has been
killed in the line of duty by a citizen with a concealed-weapons permit. Not one. Even
though, according to statistics, crime rates have plummeted in states where citizens are
issued concealed-carry permits, gun control advocates continue to tell us that guns cause
murder. The evidence seems to indicate the opposite. In states where concealed-carry laws
went into effect in a given county, murders fell by 8 percent, rapes by 5 percent and
aggravated assaults by 7 percent. For each additional year concealed-carry gun laws
remain been in effect, the murder rate declines by 3 percent, robberies by more than 2
percent and rape by 1 percent. When a woman is armed with a gun, up to 83 percent of the
time she will be successful at preventing rape, and only half as likely of being injured
in the process. These figures should be good news in the U.S. for the 17 million American
women estimated to carry guns, but not for those in Great Britain who have been
proscribed from keeping guns for self-protection.
The Statue of Liberty is crying. What is probably the greatest work in democracy, our
constitution, is being trampled on. Our rights and freedoms are slowly being compromised.
We are forced to rely on a police force who can't protect us, a justice system that
won't, and a government that doesn't trust the people to protect themselves. Gun control
is simply the beginning of the end. Just as it was in Britain. The government has
deprived us of one of our fundamental rights, and you can be sure others will follow.
Just as it has in Britain. As we celebrated the fourth of July holiday this year one
wonders how many people took the time to reflect on what exactly we were celebrating. Did
anyone realize that millions of people have died for the freedoms that we take for
granted? These are the very same freedoms that we are allowing to be slowly stolen away
from us. The downfall of our once great nation is at hand. We must act now before it is
too late.
1. Faria, M.A. Jr. England and Gun Control: Moral Decline of an Empire. Medical 
Sentinel 4 1999: 52-55.
2. Ungoed, Thomas J. A nation of thieves. London Sunday Times Jan. 11, 1998.
3. Faria, M.A. Jr. Medical Warrior: Fighting Corporate Socialized Medicine Macon, 
GA: Hacienda Publishing Inc., 1997. 107-120.
4. Brown, M.S. Results are in for Britain: 'Less guns,' more crime. Medical Sentinel 
5 2000: 106
5. Lott, J.R. More Guns Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun control Laws. 
Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1998.