Argumentative Essay: The Right To Bear Arms

On Sunday June 12th, 2016, Omar Mateen opened fire at the Orlando Pulse nightclub. Forty-nine people had their lives stolen from them, and fifty-three were injured. Angel Colon, a survivor of the attack, told Billboard magazine, “I was holding her hand tight and I didn’t let go. Then I felt gunshots, one at a time, go into her back. I can still hear the gunshots and feel their heat. I thought I was next” (Colon, 1) Mateen was proven to be mentally unstable and was once on the terrorist watch list. How could someone on the terrorist watch list be able to legally buy a gun? American citizens have a right to bear arms, affirmed by the 2nd amendment, but it is also a privilege and can be lost. If guns become completely banned, only criminals will have them and law abiding citizens will not be able to protect themselves. There need to be strict laws on who can buy guns because guns do not shoot people, people shoot people

An opposing argument is that any American citizen can buy a gun, no questions asked. The second amendment does state that ‘’... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." In other words, American citizens have a right to bear arms and nobody can take that right away. If anybody could legally purchase guns, does that include people with a criminal record? Or people with a mental illness? Laura Cutilletta, a senior staff attorney for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said “We need laws like background checks that keep guns out of the hands of violent people, whether they are violently mentally ill, a domestic abuser or suicidal," (Cutilletta, 1) This could not be more true, because who would even want to supply someone with a mental illness or a domestic abuser a gun? There need to be strict background checks on who can buy guns, so nobody of bad character can legally purchase