Recently, there have been many calls for gun rights restriction. I am an avid supporter of the Second Amendment. My family owns many firearms and I have knowledge on each of them, so I believe that many opinions of anti gun politics are molded by serious misunderstandings of firearms themselves as well as why we have them. Here I present a few points for consideration. Who knows? Perhaps it will change your outlook.

 Firstly, one must realize why we have the Second Amendment. Its main purpose is to protect America from the kind of tyrannical government our founders fought off. Therefore, the Second Amendment is the protection for all of the rest. To give it up is to give up the others. Most agree that our government fails us constantly. I do not think it wise to give an inch of our right of protection to any government, especially one that continues to fail its people. Every tyrannical government first disarmed its populous. As Ben Franklin once suggested, a society which gives up liberty for a sense of security deserves neither and shall lose both. 

 Secondly, I will address current gun control proposals. An all-out gun ban will not work. To do this would probably result in a full scale civil war. How about a semi-automatic ban then? Well, 90 percent of public firearms in the U.S. are semi-automatic. Again, good luck. Then why not ban the so called “assault weapons?” Higher grade firearms are used for much less violent crime than handguns. Still, one may question why we have access to these seemingly “unnecessary” weapons. The reason is quite simple. Due to the threat of tyrannical government, the average citizen must be able to meet the average infantry soldier in combat.

Finally, I will end with this: There are no good or bad guns. There are good and bad people. We have had guns since the founding of this great country, and the recent violence is a first. Among other things, I believe this stems from a serious mental health crisis in our country. Almost all mass shooters have been mentally unsound in some way. In short, I think it is unfair to attack guns and the gun community like what has been occurring. We should not disarm the law-abiding populous just in an attempt to suppress a few bad eggs. Guns are inanimate objects, and they are not the problem. People are.

Eric Everingham, 11th