From "Donald Trump Suggests ‘Second Amendment People’ Could Act Against Hillary Clinton", Donald Trump made a controversial claim that Hillary Clinton is a threat to the second amendment, a revised version of constitution that give people rights to hold firearms, and that the gun rights supporters may vote against her or potentially assassinate her (2016).
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My Yes/No question is:
Should the country let people own weapons?
My answer is:
Yes, but there should be a test to make sure that the arms owners are responsible enough.
This is quite a controversial topic, so we must carefully think about it before supporting either side. This article disappoint me a little bit. It is crammed with Trump haters comments. I'm not a Trump supporter myself, but it make me feel that this is a one-sided argument. Gun supporters are underrepresented. I hear the case of Bobby Kennedy. I hear that second amendment people are "potential assassins." But only one good reason from the other side was mentioned. I only hear that if the rights was nullified, they will be "defenceless." We must be objective and listen to both sides of story on which this article did not go a good job. So I think we should begin with gun supporters' arguments and why they think firearms are important for them.
First of all, people value their life. They want to be safe, and they want to be in control of the situation. Therefore, they believe that guns are necessary. With guns, they are safe from being robbed. Or at least, they can fight back. They have a mean to protect themselves. This idea is understandable, and I respect it. Imagine that guns were unobtainable through legal means. People have no weapons in their house. This might seem peaceful, but in truth it is a disaster. Criminals, if they wanted to, can always find a way to obtain guns. While people have no power to fight back but evildoers are fully armed, crime rates are likely to rise. Furthermore, America is too big for not having guns. With strong military foundation, advance equipments, high quality and quantity forces, and citizens with no power to fight back, the government will have too much power. Citizens have nothing to fight against such big forces. It will be chaotic! Violence is not a solution, but sometimes it is the best option.
Gun control supporters have some interesting reasons as well. Apart from ones mentioned in the article, I can think of some reasons why we should prohibit people from owning a gun. First of all, people are not ready. They don't know how to use a gun. Some people passes false information about guns from generation to generation without knowing how to properly handle a gun. And it is a tragic to see kids, obviously not ready for a weapon, accidentally kill their relatives. People, despite not knowing a thing, can easily buy a powerful firearms normally used in military at a local gun shop. According to "7 Reasons It’s So Easy to Buy a Gun in the U.S.", there is almost no background check, no license needed, and can be purchase online (2016). You can simply walk into individual sellers to get a gun and bypass all the legal process. This is shockingly too easy that it make me worry living in the country. I might get shot someday if I accidentally offended someone, and virtually everyone own a gun.
Clearly, the gun control laws in America is too loose. I agree that it's their rights to have a gun. Weapons make people feel more safe and secure. It bolsters their confidence. But we should make sure that those people are responsible enough. We should make sure that they will not commit mass murder, or have mental instability. The problem is at people who hold weapons. We should teach them proper gun safety procedure. This makes me think of a cheesy sentence I heard somewhere. Guns don't kill people, people do.
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References
Corasaniti, N., & Haberman, M. (2016, August 9). Donald Trump Suggests ‘Second Amendment People’ Could Act Against Hillary Clinton. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html
Eaton, J. (2016, June 20). 7 Reasons It’s So Easy to Buy a Gun in the U.S.. TeenVogue. Retrieved from http://www.teenvogue.com/story/7-reasons-easy-buy-guns-america
Eaton, J. (2016, June 20). 7 Reasons It’s So Easy to Buy a Gun in the U.S.. TeenVogue. Retrieved from http://www.teenvogue.com/story/7-reasons-easy-buy-guns-america
Thank you Oil for kicking off the response blogging so well.
ReplyDeleteIt is a controversial topic. I was tempted to blog it this morning, and am glad now that I left it, since you have treated it so well.
I thought the news fuss was a bit over done. Yes, Trump's comments were as stupid as many of his other comments, and totally unfit for someone who wants to be president of the US, but I thought his silliness suggesting an assassination was just a bad joke. I think your point about allowing other sides to be heard is also relevant here, but I'd like to see how your classmates respond before I say any more.
And I also have some homework to check.
Actually you should worry about your safety while staying in Thailand because firearm murder rate in Thailand is a lot higher than in the United States. In Thailand people allowed to own firearm for self-defense purpose but need to have a license for gun possession somehow many people still own gun illegally for certain reasons, for example, the crime or rebellion so I don’t think if the country let people own firearm it will increase the crime rate anyway. But I’m worried about how we can exactly know who is responsible enough to own the firearm because I saw from the news that many normal people with pressure, feeling inferior, rancor towards someone or society can lead to commit a crime too.
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