For a long time now gun control has been a very hot topic. There are two sides to this very important issue. The pro-gun people believe that gun ownership is a constitutional right backed by the Second Amendment. Pro-gun believes that you should be able to own any firearm. Some pro-gun people believe that gun laws only restrict the law abiding citizens. The pro gun control people believe that guns are the reason for so much crime. Pro-gun control people also believe that gun laws keep guns off the street and lower the crime rates.

The Second Amendment of the Constitution say,”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 Second Amendments goal is to give defense for individuals against violence and aggression. The Second Amendment helps secure the right of the people to have a gun in their own home. Gun ownership should be protected to ensure personal safety.

Citizens who own guns and who are fighting for gun ownership right are fighting to have a gun for protection against crime. In a nationwide poll gun owners stated three reasons they own firearms, protection against crimes, target shooting, and hunting. Sixty-seven percent of the people voted they own guns for protection against crimes. In a 1982 survey of male felons in eleven different state prisons dispersed across the US found that thirty-four percent of criminals had been scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim. Also in the same survey forty percent of the prisoners had decided not to commit a crime because they knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun. This proves that when people own a gun they can protect themselves against criminals. In the 1982 survey over sixty-nine percent personally knew other criminals who had been scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim. The 1982 survey shows that guns have the potential to scare people off. Also in another survey done by the National Rifle Association prisoners were interviewed about their decisions to commit a crime or not. According to professors James D. Wright and Peter H Rossi, the men who interviewed the inmates provide people with the mind of a criminal. One question the professors asked was, “Do you avoid houses when people are home because you have a fear of being shot?” Seventy-four percent of inmates said they did avoid houses when people were home. Another question that Wright and Rossi asked was, “A smart criminal tries to find out if his potential victim is armed?” Fifty-one percent of the surveyed said they agreed and thirty percent said that they strongly agreed (The Armed Criminal In America). These surveys taken by the criminals are proving that gun ownership can ensure personal safety.

One well-armed homeowner, Susan Gonzalez, recounts her horrifying experience on the gunstories.org website. In 1997 one family on a summer night had their lives changed forever. Susan Gonzalez and her husband were sound asleep upstairs when they were awakened to the noise of the front door opening. That night Susan’s son had told her that he was going to be home around one or two in the morning so she made her husband get out of bed to check to see if it was him and to the Gonzalez’s surprise it was not. Just as Susan was about to walk down the stairs she heard a loud voice scream angrily at her, “get down ma’am”. She was so scared that the only thing that she could thing to do was run to her room and wake her husband up to get the gun. Her husband ran out of the bedroom right as he heard the man yelling. Before she could even say a word to her husband she had been shot through the chest with a 9MM bullet. Her husband Mike was fighting them and trying to stay alive while trying to get them out of their home. Susan was in shock about being shot and she remembered that her husband’s hand gun was sitting in the drawer next to the bed. Susan said, “I opened fire with the gun that I did not think I would ever need. I turned to look at the intruder who was still fighting my husband, and to my horror, he placed the gun against the side of my husband’s head to fire.” Before the gunman could fire Susan pulled the trigger and saved her husband’s life and her own. The moral of the story is that owning a gun can save your life.

The Second Amendment was created for the people of the United States for a reason. Gun Control is a serious issue and gun ownership should be protected to ensure peoples safety.











Works Cited
Agresti, James. Gun Control Facts. 22 December 2010. 29 May 2011 <http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp>.
Gonzalez, Susan. "A True Story About Home Invasion: Would You Be Ready?" Gun Stories. 17 May 2011 <http://www.gunstories.org/gunstories>.
"The Armed Criminal In America." NRA-ILA. 1 June 2011 <http://www.nraila.org/issues>.
"The Second Amendment ." Second Amendment Foundation Online. 3 June 2011 <http://www.saf.org/>.