Can Unarmed be Dangerous Too?

How would you feel if you were left defenseless in your own home because a minor blemish on your record prevented you from purchasing a firearm due to gun control laws? Background checks, one of many gun control laws required by the government, prevent people with very minor run-ins with the law from buying guns. As a result, people are not able to protect themselves in a crisis. Gun control laws should not be placed on U.S. citizens because there are many benefits to owning guns. Gun control in unconstitutional, and background checks are not completely fair.

People are convicted of a variety of vague and minor charges that can keep an individual from owning a gun everyday. A person could have been wrongly convicted of domestic violence or the crime could have been exaggerated, or someone with a drug problem that cleaned up their act could attempt to purchase a firearm, but they would not pass the required background check. Yost states, “More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years”(Yost 1). Who knows how many of these people would later try to purchase a gun, but not be able to due to gun control laws that were passed in their state. The bottom line is that gun control laws are not always fair.

According to Merriam Webster dictionary a right is “something that a person is or should be morally or legally allowed to have, get, or do”(“Right”). If someone has a right to do something, it is unjust to take those rights away from someone. For example, people have a right to free speech and religion according to the constitution. The same constitution also grants U.S. citizens the right to bear arms. The U.S. Constitution and some State Constitutions both grant the right to bear arms to people, and this makes a pro-gun control view unconstitutional.

Beyond question, the second amendment states that, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The message of this amendment is clear; you cannot take away a person’s right to bear arms. In like manner, section 15 of the State Constitution of Connecticut says something along the same line, according to father of a Sandy Hook parent (Brown 2). The right to have guns should not be taken away from citizens because it unfair and unconstitutional.
Imagine if you were wrongly convicted of murder. Later evidence proves that you are innocent, but during that time period that you were wrongly convicted you want to purchase a gun in order to protect yourself or family, but you cannot. Is that fair? Background checks set in place by gun control laws keep people who have made mistakes in their past, even very minor ones, from owning guns. Background checks are unfair; therefore, they should not be mandatory.

Keith A. Williams, Greenville lawyer, says that a convicted felon, even after they are released from prison, may be banned for carrying a weapon. If a person commits a crime that requires them to be in prison for twelve months, they are not able to own a gun. In North Carolina, even the lowest ranked felony can have a twelve-month sentence. Even someone who is expunged from a crime could possibly not have the right to own guns anymore when going through a background check (Williams 1). This makes background checks unfair. Not everyone who commits a crime is a murderer, so there is no reason that a pro-gun control activist would fear these citizens owning of a gun. Unfair background checks deny people the ability to protect themselves; they do not make people safer.


A young girl named Calera faced a tough situation. At only twelve years old, in order to protect herself and her family, she shot a home invader (Hoffer 1). If guns were banned from citizens, how would Calera been able to protect herself from the invader? Owning guns has many benefits.

Each year, there are, “600,000 to 1 million defensive uses of guns” (Tucci 1). This is about the same number as crimes that involve guns. People definitely benefit from having guns. Guns are not only used for evil. Close to 200, 000 women use firearms in order to protect themselves from sexual assault (Fact Sheet: Guns Save Lives 1). It is indisputable that guns may help people.

People will argue guns are causing too much harm and no good. Guns definitely do harm people, but they also allow people to defend themselves and their families and friends, not to mention guns are used for hunting, which provides people with food. Every year, two and half million guns are used to protect people, close too 7,000 times a day guns are used in self-defense, and just under two million guns are used to save lives (Fact Sheet: Guns Save Lives 1). Sure, guns can result in terrible things, but without them terrible things would continue happen.

Guns should not be banned because it is unconstitutional. Many good things that come out of owning guns, and security measures taken in order to keep firearms from falling into criminal’s hands are unfair. How can you let someone take your right to have a firearm, and the right to protect yourself right out of your hands? The answer is, you cannot let them. It is unjust. Everyone deserves the right to protect himself or herself and people are attempting to take that away. Stand up to your government if they try to take this right away from you, and protect the rights given to you by the U.S. constitution by letting your friends and family know that you do not support gun control laws.