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.
-United States of America Constitution, Second Amendment
Laws are made in accordance to the needs of society. They are created to be followed and not infringed. The Constitution of the United States of America was written by our founding fathers and in particular, the Second Amendment is an essential part of every citizen’s life and liberty. This amendment gives the citizens the full power to be in control of their lives, family, and property. Without the arms to protect ourselves, we cannot fend off criminals who harm our families or trespassers who steal our belongings. Although there are many counter arguments against the Second Amendment that sound plausible and beneficial, there are forces behind these arguments that only feign benevolence and interest in the common people.
The roots of the Second Amendment came from the founding fathers learning the history of various cultures and their downfalls. Throughout history, every government that was erected to be beneficial to the cititzens turned into a highly centralized government vecause of a strong standing military. Monarchs of Europe used their military to flaunt their powers and wealth, but that “flaunting” and “bragging” always came with the depletion of the treasury. Like most human beings, monarchs were greedy and selfish. They made sure that they lived a luxurious life to show other monarchs that they still had a whole chamber filled with gold. Rather than depleting their treasury, they taxed their citizens, thus creating poverty and unrest in their countries. The monarchy only benefited the monarchs, their families, and the nobility. It did not benefit the common man, woman, child, or family. The citizens beneath the monarchy did not have arms. They were not allowed those fancy weapons with intricate designs and high expense—only the nobles and monarchs were. Thus, the citizens expressed their disgust at the injustice through revolutions and uprisings. Is this how a government should be?
Most of the current citizens of the United States of America remember the lines, “. . . the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” when they are asked what the second amendment is. They do not remember the first half: “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state . . . .” They assume that the second amendment talks only of bearing arms; this is unfortunate because a militia is essential to the people. Richard Henry Lee said, “a militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves . . . .” It is essential for the people to know and apply this to their lives because the militia is the sole body that ties people together to fight against foreign and domestic threats. Without the power of the second amendment, the government will become more centralized.
I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.
George Mason
Our founding fathers were afraid of a standing army; they learned from history that a standing army can only lead to the downfall of a country. Thomas Jefferson stated:
The Greeks and Romans had no standing armies, yet they defended themselves. The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so.
The founding fathers made this belief widely known by the Constitution, which states in Article I, Section 8 that Congress has full control of raising money and paying for anything listed in the section except for the army, which has to be reevaluated every two years. Line 12 reads, “To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that use shall be for longer Term than two Years.” Throughout the history of Europe, there had been many coups that were started by standing armies and these had produced devastating consequences to the countries. With a militia, we could protect our citizens, our neighbors, and our families from foreign threats of invasion and domestic risks of people attempting coups; line 15 states, “to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” The Second Amendment is a call to duty for every legal, adult citizen. It is our duty to protect our rights from being denied and taken away.
What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of libery . . . . Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.
-Elbridge Gerry
Switzerland is a great country to use as an example of the use of a militia. The Swiss do not rely on a standing army but rather a national militia. Every citizen of legal adult age is armed and knows how to wield a firearm. Unlike other heavily armed countries, Swiss citizens have a deep sense of patriotism and national identity. Swiss Shooting Sports Associaiton runs about 3,000 clubs and has 150,000 members, including a youth section. Because the Swiss culture integrated leaning about guns from a young age, there is less of a risk of gun violence. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), America is place ninety0first in the Global Study of Homicide while Switzerland is placed 200th, eighteen places from the bottom. When criminals know that the citizens of a certain country know how to use a gun effectively, none would dare trespass on another’s property or attempt to steal or hurt another individual or family.
They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-Benjamin Franklin
Our guns are our liberty, safety, and rights; the Second Amendment cannot and shall not be denied or violated. If not, our liberty, safety, and rights will become void. Consequently, we will be in the hands of a handful of elites and be controlled for the rest of our lives. Lenin’s Soviet Union, Mussolini’s Fascist Nation, and Kim Jong Un’s North Korea Regime demonstrate the threat we face without the Second Amendment. Would you want to live in a world like this?