Bang Bang Shoot 'em Up YEAH

Contrary to my blog title… as a pacifist, I am adamantly against guns. But, gun control is one of the most controversial and debated amendments to the bill of rights even today. The Second Amendment is the right to keep and bear arms. When the constitution was written, this amendment was necessary for a couple of reasons. These reasons included, to defend against foreign invaders since our army was not yet that developed, the threats of Indians, threats of neighbors and civil wars, and if the people wanted to overthrow their government the way that the colonialists had, they had to make sure they had weapons to use to do so.

But, in an era of an established army and more civil uses of protest a rebellion, guns have become more of a hassle and harm to society than a benefit or luxury. With cases such as Columbine and the most recent Colorado movie theater shooting and in the same month the shooting of a Sikh temple, people have been using their second amendment right to do the most unconstitutional thing of all, harm others right to live safely and have their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness… by taking the lives of others.

Of course there is the age-old argument by everyone from your average gun-lover to the NRA (National Rifle Association), that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"… and although this is relevant, guns create a likelihood a violence that with a singular weapon like a knife would harm one person but with a weapon like a gun can kill many in minutes and seconds. In a little over 2 hours, at the Virgina Tech Massacre, 32 were injured and 17 were wounded. So little time can take so many lives with the simple use of a gun.

Even with national controls such as permits, in a documentary I watched about a boy who had a friend die in the Columbine Massacre, the boy went around gun shows across the country and on multiple occasions was able to purchase a gun without a permit even questioned of him. This shows that the regulation is poor, and even with permits, children can take guns from their parents rooms and offices and use them themselves.

In multiple cases, gun regulations have been fought against such as in D.C. vs Heller in 2008 where the court ruled that the Second Amendment protected an individual's right to own a firearm for personal use in Washington D.C. , something that the district was trying to outlaw.

Either way, the controversy of gun control is still very alive and very controversial and protested for and protested against.

above are pictures of the "Million Mom March" for Sensible gun laws