The current gun laws do not allow enough security measures to legally keep deadly weapons out of the hands of possibly dangerous people. People sometimes misconceive the meaning of the 2nd amendment. The purpose of the that amendment in the 1700’s is different from what some of the gun owners use it for. That being said, stricter laws about the possesion of guns and use of guns could lead to less deaths between children teens and young adults. Stricter gun laws could make our society a safer place for everyone to live.

Some anti-gun control advocates say that in the United States Constitution 2nd amendment states that we have the right to “keep and bear arms.” They feel that they can have whatever gun they want, wherever they want, for whatever reason they want. The Second Amendment was made in the 1700’s for a “well regulated militia” to protect our country from invaders. Nowadays we have establishments like our, city and state, police forces, along with the National Guard that will protect us from invading forces or violence within the nation. The second amendment is not made for carrying around handguns at little league baseball fields. In Atlanta, GA WSB-TV reported a man "just walking around [saying] 'See my gun? Look, I got a gun and there's nothing you can do about it'” (wsbtv.com). This is not what our founding fathers had in mind when they created this amendment.

In the Constitution, the use of the second amendment right to bear arms is different than the actual use of guns today. The need for a gun in the 1700’s was to take part in “a well regulated militia”. A force of armed citizens to protect their area against invaders like England from trying to retake America. Nowadays people use guns for many reasons but rarely for its original intended use of a “well regulated militia.”

The homicide rates of children, teens, and young adults are astounding. For example, “in 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings.  This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour” (smartgunlaw.org). If there were more security checks on purchased guns we might be able to bring down the death toll in America. Also if there were more laws on where guns can be stored in the presence of kids in the house, the amount of “unintentional deaths” will decrease also.

Background checks could keep weapons out of reach of unstable or mentally ill citizens. According to USAToday, 934 people have died from mass shootings since 2006. A lot of lives could have been saved if we could use background checks to filter out who can and can’t have guns. “A 2001 study looked specifically at 34 adolescent mass murderers… 61.5 percent had problems with substance abuse. 48 percent had preoccupations with weapons; 43.5 percent had been victims of bullying. Only 23 percent had a documented psychiatric history of any kind” (psmag.com). Looking at this information, most of these people would not be allowed to own or be near a gun, which in turn would save a percentage of people. In my opinion some saved is better that none saved.

Almost anyone can get a gun permit easily these days and that is unsettling to me. Tim Murphy wrote about somebody getting a gun permit in Utah, “According to the state of Utah, I earned the right to carry a concealed handgun on a Saturday morning in a suburban shopping center outside Baltimore. Toward the back… is the global headquarters of Dukes Defense World, a mom-and-pop firearms instruction shop certified by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification… for obtaining a concealed-carry permit. My achievement doesn't make sense for a number of reasons. One, I don't live in Utah. I'm a resident of Washington, DC, a city that holds concealed handguns in roughly the same esteem as working escalators. I've never shot a gun. And in distinctly un-Utahn fashion, I'm nursing a hangover. Fortunately, none of that matters here. After four hours at Dukes Defense, I have a completed application and a snazzy graduation certificate for my wall.” If it is that easy to get  gun permit in America, who knows what kind of dangerous people can get their hands on these guns.

Thugs will always be able to get their hands on guns anyway, so why should we disallow normal law-abiding citizens of the right to bear arms?  It’s better that they have illegal weapons than legal weapons for two reasons; one we know that if they can’t get their hands on a legal gun, that means legislature is doing all they can. Also, most people who commit these school shootings for example get their guns from relatives. For example, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting the killer, Adam Lanza, used his mother’s guns for the shooting. CNN reported “That house included a gun locker that investigators found open and without signs of a break-in, Sedensky said. All the guns tied to Adam Lanza appeared to have been purchased by his mother, he added.” Background checks would have seen that and disallowed that family from owning a gun because of the fact that Adam Lanza was mentally ill and was a safety risk to our society.

In conclusion, I believe that the laws pertaining to the purchase of the gun and the ownership of the guns should be stricter. Being able to control who can receive a gun license or own a gun can keep deadly weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. The problem is that most people who own a gun don’t know what the intended use of the 2nd amendment is for. The control of guns in america can and hopefully will lower homicide and accidental death rates in America.

Works Cited
Beckett, Lois. "The Connection Between Mental Illness and Gun Violence." Pacific Standard. The Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media, and Public Policy., 10 June 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Botelho, Susan Candiotti. Greg, Ross Levitt, and Samira Jafari. "Newtown Shooting Details Revealed in Newly Released Documents." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
Kepple, Kevin A., Janet Loehrke, Meghan Hoyer, and Paul Overberg. "Mass Shootings Toll Exceeds 900 in past Seven Years." USA Today. Gannett, 02 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
"Man with Gun Causes Scare during Children’s Baseball Game." Wsbtv.com. 2014 Cox Media Group, 24 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
"Statistics on Gun Deaths & Injuries." Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. N.p., 16 Nov. 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
"USA Gun Violence Statistics." Heedinggodscall.org. Heeding God's Call, n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
U.S. Constitution. Amend. II
Waldman, Michael. "Gun Laws and What the Second Amendment Intended." The Seattle Times. SIRS Issues Researcher, 14 July 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.