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Gun Control Debate in US

Prior to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage - the British military Governor of the state - ordered that all private arms in Boston be deposited with the British magistrates, presumably to be stored and eventually returned to the owners. Many American citizens obeyed the order. They surrendered 1,778 muskets, 634 pistols, 973 bayonets, and 38 blunderbusses on the eve before British troops initiated their siege on the United States at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill (Halbrook, 1986, p. 151). Several years later, the event so impressed the framers of the new American Constitution that the "right to bear arms" was codified for all times in the Second Amendment.

However, the issue of gun control has reemerged in recent decades. Court interpretations of the Second Amendment have opened the door to government restrictions on gun ownership. The purpose of this research is to examine the pros and cons in the current debate over gun control. It is herein argued that the lessons offered by General Gage are as valuable today as they were in 1775.

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, ratified in 1791, reads as follows: "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." Despite the seemingly straightforward language, this amendment has been subject to considerable scrutiny by the courts. As evidenced by court considerations, the Second Amendment is not as clear cut as it appears.

The first U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gun control set the tone for later decisions. In U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876), the court established two distinct legal principles that allowed the states to regulate gun ownership (Spitzer, 1985, pp. 468-469). The first principle is "incorporation." The process of incorporation has been the means by which the courts extend constitutional prot...

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Gun Control Debate in US. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:07, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1680962.html