Introduction
In the contemporary American society, a majority of American citizens own a private gun. As there are a large number of unregistered firearms owned by Americans, the gun ownership has become a hot issue in the recent years. The opponents of gun ownership demand the government to ban it as they assert that gun control is necessary to avoid harm and loss of life. On the other hand, the advocates of gun ownership aver that gun ownership is a fundamental right of every citizen as it brings several benefits to the individual and society by protecting them against criminal activities (Legault, 2008). Therefore, every law abiding citizen must enjoy the right of owning a gun.
Benefits of Gun Ownership
The ownership of gun is also essential as guns have the potential of saving more lives than taking them. Law-abiding citizens in America make use of firearms for defending themselves against criminals approximately 6,850 times every day. In addition, about two million women in America use a firearm annually to save themselves from rapists and sexual abusers (Kleck & Gertz, 1995). According to the same study, regulatory measures that work to lessen the use of guns among citizens also “reduce defensive gun uses that would otherwise have saved lives, prevented injuries, thwarted rape attempts, driven off burglars, and helped victims retain their property” (Kleck & Gertz, 1995). Therefore, it is essential for the American government to allow citizens have guns so that they can protect their own selves, their families, or bystanders from harms and injuries that may be inflicted by the criminals.
Gun ownership must also be allowed as it is one of the basic moral duty of all the citizens to defend others. As far as morality is concerned, it does not require a person to wish for others to risk their lives for protecting him. In the similar fashion, it is also the moral and ethical responsibility of an individual to be ever-ready to defend the innocent beings. The opponents of gun ownership forget that by considering government as the sole protector, they are actually forgetting their human duty of acting efficiently of self-preservation. Law enforcement agencies cannot protect each and every citizen and may not be present in every traumatic situation. Therefore, gun ownership must be allowed so that people can confront the human predators around them.
Conclusion
References
Carter, G. (2002). Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.
Kleck, G., & Gertz, M. (1995). Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense With a Gun. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 86(01).
Legault, R. (2008). Trends in American Gun Ownership. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub.
Spitzer, R. (1998). The Politics of Gun Control (2nd ed.). New York, N.Y.: Chatham House.
