Dear Future President,

I believe if you're a law abiding citizen, you should have the right to own a gun. The right to bare arms is the second amendment in the U.S. constitution. There is a reason this amendment was created so early. This is because our founding fathers knew the importance of firearms and the purpose they serve protecting our country and our civilians.

The right to bare arms is so vital because it doesn’t just serve a person on the individual level, but it also creates an armed militia composed of a whole nation. The admiral of Japan in 1941, Isoroku Yamamoto, once said “It would be impossible to invade the mainland United States because there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” He is talking about how an invasion on U.S. soil would be impossible since so many citizens are armed. Also, guns provide level ground in defense because no matter how much bigger or stronger you are than someone else, the other person could protect themselves. This is why countries with low gun rights have high rates of rape and other criminal activity. Switzerland, a country that forces citizens to have guns, has the lowest homicide rate in the entire world, while Honduras which bans guns has the highest homicide rate in the world. I personally don’t believe we should force citizens to have a guns, but we shouldn't prevent the ones that want to have one from owning a gun. A recent study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that there is a positive correlation between gun ownership and violent crime in countries internationally. In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to just 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole.

On the other hand, some claim the second amendment does not belong in the 21 century. One argument against gun rights is that the amendment was written in a different time for weapons like muskets. This is an absurd claim for many reasons. One is that you would have to think the founding fathers never expected firearms to advance in any way throughout history. Also there were pistols that could fire multiple rounds before needing to be reloaded at that time in history. Some believe guns are the reasons for mass murders, but this is also untrue because most murders are in areas where there are people that are not carrying guns, like schools, movie theaters, and in clubs like Orlando where guns were not allowed, creating easy prey for terrorist and criminals. Also, even if you did put a ban on guns, crime would only rise. This is because criminals would still have access to guns while civilians would not.

Yes, guns can be used as a deadly weapon, but so are knifes, cars, and etc. The terrorist attack in Nice, France is proof of that, when a terrorist killed 84 people with a truck, not a gun. Taking guns away won't prevent tragedies such as murder, it will only change the way they happen. So do you want your citizens to be safe and secure, or at risk with no way to protect themselves? If you do, you must realize the vitality of the second amendment and why we must keep it as a right.