2nd Amendment Blocks Sensible Gun Laws: Confiscation Unviable - Essay Sample

Introduction

There are no sensible gun laws that we can enact that do not violate the 2nd Amendment. Background checks, banning semi-automatic and automatic weapons among other proposals are not practical. Every proposal for sensible gun laws would violate the 2nd Amendment. The only gun law that would have stopped past mass shootings is total gun confiscation. However, such a move would be in complete violation of the amendment, something that no politician is willing to attempt, according to Michael Graham (2018). (Graham, 2018)

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Any ban on any kind of a gun would not violate the 2nd Amendment. The 2nd Amendment gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms. However, this right has been subject to other regulations such as the prohibition of concealed weapons, laws imposing conditions to commercial sales, prohibition on carrying of unusual and dangerous weapons and prohibition of carrying of firearms in some locations (Wichita, 2019). A ban of a certain kind of gun would be permissible too under the 2nd Amendment.

Since the 2nd Amendment mentions "arms," a line has to be drawn somewhere just like the 100 students who travelled to the Florida capitol hoped for (Leitner & Silva, 2018). As interpreted in the past, the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited. Courts have interpreted the right to limit the intent and manner that guns are used for. Hence, while handguns are encouraged for defense, an assault weapon cannot be said to be for the same purpose. Accordingly, a line already exists, albeit a vague one.

Not everyone should be able to buy landmines, tanks, machine guns, and rocket launchers. As McGauly (2019) observes, states like Texas have experimented with regulations already in the past. From past court interpretations, these cannot be interpreted to be for self-defense. In the 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller, it became evident that some weapons are classified as unusual and dangerous. Consequently, some weapons can only be approved for use in the military and not for everyone.

References

Graham, M. (2018, May 21). Commentary: The problem with "common-sense" gun laws. CBS News. Retrieved from cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-problem-with-common-sense-gun-laws/

Leitner, T., & Silva, D. (2018, Feb 21). Parkland students travel to Florida capital to push gun law reform. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/parkland-students-travel-florida-capital-push-gun-law-reform-n849751

McGaughy, L. (2019, Sep 12). Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recommends 'voluntary' gun background checks, stiffer penalties after El Paso and Odessa shootings. The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved from https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/09/12/texas-gov-greg-abbott-recommends-voluntary-gun-background-checks-stiffer-penalties-after-el-paso-and-odessa-shootings/

Wichita, D. W. (2019, Aug 11). New gun laws take effect in Texas Sept. 1. Times Record News. Retrieved from https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2019/08/07/new-gun-laws-take-effect-texas-sept-1/1943416001/