Thursday, January 21, 2016

Striking a Balance Between Order and Liberty

The Second Amendment of the constitution states, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." This amendment was first ratified in December of 1791 and serves as one of the most controversial amendments included in the Bill of Rights.

While some American citizens find gun control to be an infringement upon their liberty, gun control is needed to keep order in our country. Living a mere distance from the murder capital of America, crime is something that unfortunately happens everyday. This January, there have been a total of 203 shots in Chicago alone. These numbers are unacceptable. The lives of people are being put at risk everyday due to different opinions over the second amendment. Although citizens should have the right to bear arms when necessary, our country could take preventative measure to balance liberty and order here.

Tighter gun our background check system is one preventative measure to take. This will ensure no repeated, violent offenders get the holdings of a dangerous weapon. Strengthening gun eligibility can also help. For example, requiring a photo ID to those who have guns, requiring those who seek to own a gun to go through safety courses and pass tests, and requiring a mandatory safety child locks. Another preventative measure that can be taken is strengthening the sentence put on gun crime offenders. These actions alone can help to prevent more lives from being taken.

It would be unreasonable to have no gun control laws at all. The world would be chaotic if you could go around shooting people without punishment. On the other hand, it would be unfair to not allow Americans one of their given rights as citizens. So, just how free can we let the the "land of the free'" be free? By allowing citizens the right to bear arms so long as they are doing so responsibly and undergo the right training, we can hopefully find a balance between order and liberty.

3 comments:

  1. I agree completely, Sam. One thing that a lot of people forget is that the point of the 2nd Amendment is to secure an organized militia in case of national emergency, such as another country trying to invade, which is something that we haven't had to worry about for over 100 years. The 2nd Amendment was not written with AK-47s in mind, it was written at a time where the most dangerous thing you could carry was a musket.

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  2. Your blog title is quite the attention grabber and intrigued me immediately. In commenting on the structure of your post, I liked that you suggested different ways in which America could begin to crawl slowly towards reaching a balance between order and liberty. I agree with your stance on the gun violence issues that America has faced for too long.

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  3. I also agree with your viewpoint and I like how you pointed out and explained the conflict with this issue. Your title perfectly describes the struggle for the country to approach the issue that has been extremely damaging without encroaching on citizens' rights. It is costly to let the issue to continue to be left as is without any solution or approach.

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