Gun Control Persuasive essay ..\..\WINDOWS\Desktop\Composition 1 Portfolio Presentation.ppt By: Rachel Sand People have the right to own guns. The constitution of the United States has a bill of rights and within there is the second amendment that states that people have the right to keep and bear arms. Guns are used for many useful things such as hunting. If we didn’t have hunting then animals would starve or die of starvation or become overpopulated and would eventually die. Some people blame guns for a lot of violence that takes place. In reality, it is the person who is holding the gun or the owner of the gun that is responsible for that piece of equipment and they should have complete control over it. It is their own fault if it gets into the hands of an irresponsible person. Guns do not kill people, people kill people. It is a shame to hear about a shooting that took place and the guilty person is a little child. But you have to ask yourselves, “Where did that child get the gun in the first place and how could the child get it if it was put in a proper place where the child could not reach it or get to it.” People have to be smart enough to know that a gun is a very dangerous weapon and they should have enough common sense to lock it up so that only the owner could get to it. My dad is a hunter and we have always had guns in the house but we were always smart enough and we were always told that we were never allowed into the room where the guns were. He kept them locked in a metal gun cabinet. They were never left out so that we could see them or ever touch them. “It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the States; and, in view of this prerogative of the General Government, as well as of its general powers, the States cannot, even laying the constitutional provision in question out of view [the Second Amendment] prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms, so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the General Government.” “[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” “Many gunowners store their gun with a "trigger lock," a device which prevents the trigger from being squeezed until the lock is removed with a key. Other gunowners store their guns in safes, or in "quick-lock" safety boxes which pop open when a combination of buttons is pressed. Some gunowners store their gun separately from their ammunition, or with a critical component (such as the bolt) removed. Any of these steps may be a sensible way to deal with the presence of guns and children in the same house. NRA safety training strongly urges that any gun which is kept only for sporting purposes be stored in a condition so that it cannot be readily fired.” In conclusion I think that people have the right to keep and bear arms and they should be responsible enough to know what and how to keep others safe while they own a gun. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Guncite Trigger Locks and Mandatory Storage 10/15/00 http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_rrtrigger.html Guncite Quotes from Founding Fathers 11/01/00 http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndfqu.html Levinson, Sanford. Yale Law Journal Gun Control Essays 1989 http://www.guncite.com/journals/gun_control_embar.html