The Importance Of Individual Rights And Responsibilities

Every individual has rights afforded to them, be it natural rights, inherent rights, or rights given by a person’s governing body. With great rights, come great individual responsibilities. Where do these individual rights and responsibilities begin, end, or overlap with the government’s? There are restrictions that accompany these right and responsibilities, and rightfully so. This is due to the fact that not every person is capable of fulfilling the responsibilities set forth to afford these rights. So, who then does this make responsible for individual and public safety? The second amendment acknowledges that every person has the right and responsibility to defend themselves, be it from a tyrannical government or from foreign, or domestic

Undercover agents using fake names and identification went all over the U.S. to try to purchase guns with the fraudulent names and identification. They were successful, and this uncovered another issue with NICS. The system does not positively identify the individual. It only checks to see if the name matches one from a long list of deniable individuals. What is worse is some of the people that have been allowed to purchase not just firearms, but explosives. Individuals who are on the FBI’s terrorist watch list were allowed to purchase firearms and obtain explosives licenses with a 91 percent approval rate (Lawrence,

is exponentially more violent than any other nation especially when it comes to firearm use. Then it is often compared to the number of guns per capita in the country. The problems with this myth is that although the United States does have the highest number of privately owned firearms in the world, but we only have 4.8 per 100,000 homicides while Honduras for instance has an almost outright ban on all personal firearms, their homicide rate is 91.6 per 100,000 (Homicide statistics, 2012). These are homicides with firearms in a country with some of the world’s strictest gun restrictions. It has actually been proven that in 2003 handgun ownership increased 30 percent in the U.S., and the trend that followed was a decrease in homicide rates by nearly 27 percent (Guns and crime, 2004). Great Britain is also a very common counter example of a less violent nation after they banned handguns in 1997. The fact is per 100,000 Britain has 2,034 violent incidents versus the U.S. at 466 per 100,000(Slack, 2009). That is actually worse than South Africa which is said to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Britain is actually the most violent nation in the EU. The violence has actually gotten to the point that a group of doctors have attempted to legislate for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives which are used in about half of all violent crimes in Britain (Edwards, 2009). Violent offenders do not need guns to do harm,