The Constitution of the United States of America was ratified on December 13, 1787 and contained the Second Amendment, which gives the right to bear arms to the citizens of the United States. James Madison, the author of the Second Amendment reasoned that “only despotic governments are afraid to trust the people with arms” (Fernandez 44). The Framers of the constitution also believed that, “Self-defense was considered a natural and a common law right” (Fernandez 45). The Founders of our country believed that Second Amendment not only protects citizens from a tyrannical government, it also guarantees citizens a natural right to self protection. With all the debate that takes place today on the issue of gun rights in America, it is important to look at the facts of gun violence and understand why the American right to bear arms remains relevant …show more content…
Are guns truly and properly used by a country’s citizens? How often do citizens actually use firearms for self-defense and protection? As it turns out, citizens use firearms for their protection quite often. According to JustFacts.com, a website that compiles data from thousands of credible sources such the U.S. Department of Justice and the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, they estimate that American citizens use firearms to defend themselves from crime roughly 989,883 times per year. This equates to roughly 2700 occurrences of defensive firearm use each day. Another example that JustFacts.com provides is a nationwide survey from 1993, in which 3.5 percent of households have reported using a gun for reasons of self protection and protection of their property. This percentage equates to 1,029,615 people in 1993. What can be gathered from this information is that roughly one million American citizens exercise their right to bear arms in order to defend their property, their lives, and their families. By disarming common citizens, gun crime won’t cease to exist as shown in the previous examples, in fact it would end up leaving nearly one million Americans almost defenseless from crime each year. The right to self-preservation, given to the American citizens by the Second Amendment, clearly remains