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http://keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=3475
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This article was written by 13-year-old Amanda Embree and
submitted to the Free-Market.net Liberty Essay Contest. As
a result, Amanda won a prize — a KeepAndBearArms.com Life
Membership. She’s our newest and youngest Life Member.
Feel free to send her a note to welcome her to the team.
–Angel Shamaya, KABA Founder/Executive Director

Guns: A Wrong or Our Right?

by Amanda Embree [email protected]

The second amendment to the constitution of the United
States of America says that “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.” Many
argue that this is a collective right given to the National
Guard, and not the individual citizens. Webster’s
collegiate dictionary defines militia thus:

“A body of citizens enrolled as a regular military force for
periodical instruction, discipline, and drill, but not
called into active service except in emergencies. In the
United States, it includes all able-bodied male citizens
between eighteen and forty-five . . . ”

In 1990 the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Verdugo that when
the Constitution and its amendments use the phrase “the
people” it can always be interpreted “individuals.” This
would include “the right of the people to keep and bear arms
shall not be infringed.” The U.S. Code defines militia in
Title 10, section 311 as “all able-bodied males at least 17
years of age….” The second amendment means the citizens.

With their first argument debunked, gun control advocates
would have us believe that guns are dangerous and that
anyone owning one is a potential criminal. They insist,
then, that we must keep guns only in the hands of policemen
and the military. One major problem is that criminals, by
definition, disobey the law. According to The New American
magazine, during one period of 10 years, about 16,000 guns
were stolen from U.S. Military arsenals, and in one year
enough rifles, machine guns, bullets, gas masks, grenades,
etc. were stolen from the Los Angeles National Guard to arm
a combat unit.

Even supposing we could get all guns from everyone including
the police and military, criminals could make their own.
Home-made guns, also known as “Zip” guns, can be made from
readily available materials such as radio antennas, gas
pipes, rubber bands, door latches, and nails. At a high
school in Jerome, Idaho, in June of 1988, a 15-year-old boy
died when he was accidentally hit by a gun he had made from
a music stand and a ball bearing. In the Marion, Illinois
top security penitentiary, officials found “an extremely
sophisticated zip gun made from metal tubing, tape, a light
bulb filament, flashlight batteries taken from a radio, and
a toggle switch.” The gun’s hitting power was reportedly
equal to that of a .25-caliber pistol (Parade magazine,
September 28, 1980). Two murderers escaped from a maximum
security prison in San Quentin, California using a machine
gun they had built while serving time. The list goes on and
on.

If we can’t prohibit guns, then control lobbyists will
suggest waiting periods. The problem is that waiting
periods do not prevent crime and can keep protection out of
the hands of those who need it. The Kansas City Police
Department found that, on average, murder stemming from a
domestic dispute was committed after the murderer had
already visited the victim five times. Murder is usually
planned ahead of time, so a waiting period won’t prevent it.
A Hollywood actor named David Rappaport committed suicide 15
days after he bought a .38-caliber revolver. The 15-day
waiting period in California didn’t stop him.

Guns have been called “the great equalizer” with reason.
The elderly and invalids can handle them and protect
themselves from stronger attackers. Robert J. Kukla said in
his book Gun Control (Stackpole Books, 1972),

“Prior to the development of firearms it was the most
muscular and brutal — the man with a club, ax, or sword who
ruled our roads and streets and at their whim terrorized our
homes. Today, a paunchy intellectual or a dainty and
delicate woman, with courage and determination, is more than
the equal of any brute who ever trampled the sands of a
Roman arena. The difference is a firearm.”

In 1982 the head of households in Kennesaw, Georgia (except
convicted criminals and those with religious objections)
were required to own at least one gun and ammunition. That
year incidents of burglary dropped 73% in Kennesaw. In 1991
and 1992 combined there were three robberies, and from the
passing of the law until ten years later there were no
murders. A University of Massachusetts study found that
criminals’ fear of armed citizens halts an average of 50,000
crimes each year.

The fiercest criminal from whom individual citizens need
protection is a government which becomes overbearing. We
are free in America today because the colonists fought
against King George’s tyranny using the guns that the king
tried to take from them. The Alamo defenders used their own
weapons when the Mexican government violated the
Constitution of 1824 and started to take away the settlers’
freedoms. More recently, our government used force to take
Elian Gonzalez by overcoming his unarmed protectors and
dispersing unarmed protesters. There is no guarantee that
it won’t happen again, because a government can do whatever
it wants to if the citizens are unarmed.

If we are to keep our freedoms we must keep our guns.