Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Is the Constitution Outdated?

Good Essays
303 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Is the Constitution Outdated?
Is the Constitution Outdated? The United States Constitution is a hotly debated topic these days. Certain interest groups are trying to amend new laws very regularly. These special interest groups claim that some of the amendments are outdated and need to be changed to fit today’s requirements. Probably the most debated amendment would be the second amendment, which protects your right to bear arms. The second amendment is especially important to me because I feel that everybody should have the right to protect themselves by any means necessary, including assault weapons. Special interest groups are targeting these “Military style weapons” saying that nobody needs one of these weapons to defend themselves. I strongly disagree. These “Military style weapons” are extremely effective for home defense if used properly. Assault weapons are often used in mass shootings. And since these weapons are allowed to be owned and operated under the second amendment, special interest groups and law makers are targeting the second amendment and saying that it is “Outdated and needs to be updated”. They argue that the founding fathers never intended for assault weapons to even exist. They want to ban and restrict assault weapons. I see banning or restricting these weapons as a violation to my constitutional rights because it limits my options for personal defense. It creates an uneven playing field because felons and criminals alike can still get these weapons, and that has been proved many times within the last few years.
It’s not a gun issue here in the United States, it’s a mental health issue. Nearly all of the mass shootings of late have been committed by somebody with a mental health issue. So instead of targeting assault weapons as the fault, maybe special interest groups need to re-evaluate and target the issue of mental health.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Over the years, many people have developed many different views on gun laws. The topic has become so controversial among society because many people do not see eye to eye on guns. With that being said, it is important that people understand both sides when it comes to gun laws. In the article, Change your gun laws, America by Fareed Zakaria, his opinion is given on why the gun laws in America should be changed in order to prevent more deaths and gun attacks. The standard explanation for these mass shootings has been that the person behind the attack is suffering from a mental illness. However, Zakaria believes that America’s high gun homicide rates compared to the small amount of mentally disturbed people is the actual reason for these high…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Guns don’t kill people – people kill people. I know some of you are shaking your heads and thinking how ridiculous that statement is. But, to say that guns kill people is to say that the car killed the family of four, instead of the drunk driver killed the family of four. Watch almost any nightly news and you will see a story about someone in the community who gets butchered by a drunk driver. The Center for Disease Control reported that in 2013 there were 10,076 Americans killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. That is almost 30 of us every day. It is an unbelievable figure. Yet we rarely blame the car for the deadly crash; instead we blame the drunk driver. However, when it comes to a mad man who kills people with a gun many of us get it backwards. We don’t hold the crazy guy responsible – we blame the gun. It is a natural reaction to an unthinkable act.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Constitution 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.” The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, and the Second Amendment has been highly debated ever since. (Second Amendment; Cornell University Law School, law.cornell.edu) Furthermore, America today doesn’t have luxury of interpreting what our forefathers where thinking at the time the Second Amendment was written. Americans feel called to rescue the Constitution from its original intent. For example; the government has formed an organized military, redefining “militia” from its original meaning, to what militia infers today, to most Americans…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gun control is a big factor that contributes to mass shootings, but there are other important factors, as well. These mass shootings are a serious issue in America and as a country we need to modify our current gun control laws, limit the amount of opioids sold, and create laws to restrict people with mental illnesses and psychiatric disorders from purchasing guns. If our country modifies the state of this situation, the United…

    • 1669 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Gun Laws Exist

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The first question I wonder is How much gun violence is in the USA? According to The Atlantic, There were 8,583 homicides by firearms in 2011, out of 12,664 homicides total, according to the FBI. Yes, 8,583 deaths by firearms is high, but how many of those were by unstable mental health patients who suffer from depression, bi polar, people who are in need of help for mental health, So, this is when gun control steps in, but not much, there should be a rule if you are a mental health patient, no matter what you suffer from now or in the past, shouldn’t be able to buy any lethal weapon..…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Second 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. If the anit-gun lobby can abolish the Second Amendment, then they can abolish any of them if we give them the power to do away with one. This includes freedom of speech, press, and religion, the right against self-incrimination, and unwarranted search and seizure. Not only did our Founding Fathers focus their debate on the right of people to keep and bear arm, they devoted considerable energy to issuing a warning to future generations that the battle to defend theses freedoms will take precedence over other work, yet in recent years were anit-gun politicians have attempted to control guns in the name of crime prevention. Address all crime and just crime with guns. To date no gun law has been proven to reduce crime or homicides, not even the Brady Law and the " Clinton Crime Bill' by foes of private firearms ownership was no fluke, many years of patient, deliberate work went into their anit-gun game plane that was formulated more than a decade ago. With those two laws it still did not keep guns out of criminals hands. Using FBI statistics accumulated on a country level, Lott shows that in state that have strict gun control laws, there are higher crime rates, and in states with liberal gun carry laws, there are much lower…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gun Laws

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Second Amendment in the United States Constitution gives people the right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment has been interpreted in many ways, and its limitations and what it controls have been questioned. The question that arises over and over again is that will stricter gun laws make the United States safer or more perilous. The answer is clear. With lack of gun control and that black market guns are at almost every street corner whether you think it or not. Guns are a very dangerous weapons, and the United States has to create stricter laws in order to operate and obtain them in order to protect the public.…

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though firearm training goes a long way to insure that accidents don’t happen, mass shootings similar to what is happening in this day and age can only be prevented by the strict gun control laws. Those suffering from mental illness or have ever been administer to a psychiatric facility mustn’t ever be allowed to wield or purchase firearms. The controversial suggestion of taking away guns may not come to fruition, but making sure that people with criminal and violent background aren’t able to get weapons will help the cause. These courses of reinforcing gun laws will indeed insure the safety of American…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gun Control Arguments

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages

    on assault rifles is unconstitutional. Joseph Sobran, an American journalist and writer analyzes the amendment: "The Second Amendment, whatever else it means, clearly forbids the federal government to ‘infringe’ that right” (par. 8). The federal government has taken away that right by limiting assault rifles. First, nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government granted to right to limit an individual’s right to own firearms. On the contrary, the Second Amendment expressly grants this right to all citizens, making all gun control laws unconstitutional. James Madison said in No. 45 of The Federalist Papers, "The powers of the federal government were to be ‘few and defined.’ The supposed federal power to regulate guns is anything but ‘defined’;…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the founding of our country, millions of lives have been taken due to lack of gun regulation. In the past year alone, there have been more mass shootings than there have been days in the year. These acts of terror have resulted in 12,703 deaths, 3,385 of which have been children and teenagers aged 0-17. The topic of gun regulation has become more and more heated over the past few years due to the increasing amount of controversial cases involving weapons (i.e. police brutality cases and racial discrimination incidents). Due to the rise in gun-related deaths, the United States Federal Government continues to argue over the way to reduce the number of innocent lives lost. Republicans argue that mental health should be a greater focus than…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Assault Weapons

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One idea why I think some people and most weapons should not apply to the 2nd Amendment, the number of people hurt or killed by assault weapons has decreased since they restricted the availability of it. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, in 1993, the year before the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, the number of the 19 assault weapons banned by name under current law they traced back was 8.2%. The ban went into effect on 13 September 1994 and the number of weapons they traced back was…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gun Control

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The right to bear arms is a Constitutional right that should be upheld, without limitations. The passage of laws to limit gun ownership is just a quick fix to a larger problem. The idea to limiting gun ownership is that it will help reduce catastrophes, like school shootings and innocent bystanders being injured or killed in drive-by shootings. However, limiting gun ownership will not change or modify the mentality of the people that commit these crimes, because when guns are taken away people will just find a new weapon. People and politicians may argue that the second amendment does not target every single Americans when it “protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms (2nd amendment),” but only targets militia or national guards, rather than individuals. However, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess and carry firearms even if the individual is unconnected with service in a militia. Interpretation of the Second Amendment by scholars, courts and legislators, after its ratification through the late 19th century also supports the Supreme Court’s ruling. Also the majority opinion held that the amendment's reference to “the militia” serves to clarify the reference “the people”, because "the militia” in colonial America consisted of a subset of “the people.” Therefore, the 2nd…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gun Control

    • 1508 Words
    • 5 Pages

    One of the principal arguments of gun control is the meaning of the Second Amendments of the Constitution which mention “ A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” ( Gun Control, 2006). Citizens have been debating for several years about the meaning and the purpose of what the Second Amendment is. To the Republicans, this amendment means that citizens have the right to carry a gun regardless if it an automatic machine gun at all times without any questions. The Democrats argue that the Constitution states that people may only carry guns for their self-protection.…

    • 1508 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gun Control In America

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There is no doubt that the world is more dangerous than ever. As our world's technology has improved over the years, more ways to harm ourselves have been created. Modern governments have made laws to offer these inventions to the public. One of these deadly inventions offered to the public are select firearms. Ever since its creation in America's Declaration of Independence over 200 years ago, the right to own a gun has been questioned if is should exist. The second amendment gives the people the privilege of owning firearms. This has gotten many people arguing that this amendment is responsible for a majority of crime and that America would be better off without it. They argue that if guns were limited to people of authority (military, police,…

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, with only 10 being used in mass shooting over the past ten years is a very low number considering an estimated 2,446,294 AR-15 model rifles alone being owned in the U.S. it would seem assault weapons are not the culprit of violent crime (Peters). Many other countries have also banned assault weapons and even debarred firearms completely. For example France has banned all assault weapons and pistols, allowing only the possession of rifles and shotguns; which the owner must pass a criminal background check and mental health background check as well. After being granted a license to possess a weapon, the licensee must then be re-evaluated every five years to obtain a new permit (Alpers). Unfortunately, on November 13th 2015 over 120 people were killed in a massive attack carried out by terrorists with AK-47 assault rifles. This again shows that by banning assault weapons, it does not have an impact on preventing crimes committed with these types of guns. Similarly, the country of Britain banned firearms completely in 1998. Making it illegal to possess a firearm without a special government issued license. Yet again this did not detour the mass shooting that took place in 2010, killing 12 people and injuring 30 others (McKirdy). Not surprisingly the shooter involved used hunting rifles to carry out his attacks not assault…

    • 1793 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays