Second Amendment Couldn't Have Imagined Assault Rifles

Seventy people in Aurora, Colo. just wanted to see the biggest movie event of the year, “The Dark Knight Rises”, late Thursday night, but unfortunately because of one deranged man and some ludicrous American laws none of them got to finish that movie as 58 wound up shot or wounded and 12 lost their lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do not want to take your guns away America. Though, I don’t ever plan on owning a firearm myself (because I think it could only lead to more bad than good) I don’t have anything against people who hunt or own guns for their own protection (though some people [George Zimmerman, etc.] take that right too far).

However, I will say that America should look into ways to control guns without infringing on those who live by the Second Amendment. It actually seems pretty simple to me.

The AR-15 isn't meant for hunting or necessary for protection. It's sole intention is killing.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects American’s rights to “keep and bear arms”. The original meaning of the Second Amendment was for the American public to retain the right to protect themselves. The meaning was never meant for Americans to have the right to murder.

This is where it becomes pretty simple to me … Americans should have the right to own guns, but not any gun they want. Guns that are typically used for hunting purposes (rifles, shotguns, etc.) or purposes for protection (handguns, any gun that’s also intended as hunting weapon) are fine by me. However, American citizens should not be allowed to own assault weapons, like the AR-15 assault rifle that James Holmes primarily used to gun down and kill innocent civilians in the Aurora movie theater.

Now, I know Holmes also had two handguns and a shotgun in addition to the assault rifle, all of which were purchased legally, but it’s the assault rifle that it appears caused so much harm and carnage late Thursday night.

Assault rifles really only serve one purpose … killing. Based on that there’s absolutely no damn reason why they should be legal in the United States. Illegalizing assault rifles would not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens because they definitely aren’t used for hunting and they aren’t necessary for protection.

When the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791 there was no way that our founding fathers could have foreseen such a horrific thing as an assault rifle and if they had they might have thought twice about ratifying that amendment. As previously mentioned, I’m not for eliminating the Second Amendment, but should we really rely on something created over 200 years ago to dictate our world today.  

However, I know we likely won’t get anywhere in this country on gun control, even after Thursday night’s biggest mass shooting in U.S. history, because discussing gun control is essentially a curse for politicians. Republicans would never touch the issue, even if they believed in stricter gun laws, because of the all powerful National Rifle Association’s influence on the party and Democrats, many of whom likely believe in gun control, won’t approach the topic because they realize it could be a hindrance to their political careers.

We’re never going to see an end to gun deaths in this country, even though I’m a pretty big dreamer I know this will never happen, but we can do something to make the killing of mass peoples harder than it was on Thursday night.