Imagine being home alone with nobody near you. You hear a banging on the door, but you aren’t expecting anyone. The pounding gets louder, and there’s a crash as the door breaks.You whip out your phone and dial 911. They say they’ll be there in ten minutes, but you need them now. You hear pounding footsteps getting closer. You grab your gun and wait in a room alone, finding a little comfort in the fact that you can protect yourself from the intruder.

One of the main reasons for owning a firearm is for self-defense. When there is a crime, preventing law-abiding citizens from owning guns only limits their ability to protect themselves against aggressors.

According to a study by The Economist, the fastest police response time in the country is nine minutes in New York City. When going into more suburban and rural areas, the time it takes increases, as there are fewer police officers and a larger radius to cover.
When it comes to having seconds between being dead or being alive, protection is key. While only about one fifth of all criminals carry guns when committing a crime, the victims do not know if the criminal is armed and they need a way to make sure they can defend themself.

The right to own guns to protect ourselves is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. This amendment also protects and ensures that our other rights are guaranteed. The Second Amendment was made for the purpose of protecting our freedom and liberty that the other amendments grant us. This includes our freedom of speech and religion and our freedom to own property. It also protects liberties such as the liberty to vote. The Second Amendment describes firearms as “being necessary to the security of a free state.”

While it is true that the Second Amendment was ratified and put into action in 1791, that doesn’t make it any less significant in modern times. This has led to a claim that because the Second Amendment originally applied to muskets, it does not apply to modern firearms. This is not the case, as our understanding of all the amendments has changed, but there should be clear definitions of what is a firearm and what should be purchasable. Other amendments have been interpreted to consider the current time and technology, with one example being that the Freedom of Speech, granted by the First Amendment, has come to protect people’s speech on the internet.

The Founding Fathers could not predict the future and all the different technologies there would be, yet all the other amendments interpreted for modern times, so why hasn’t the Second Amendment been interpreted as well?

The Supreme Court has also agreed through cases such as District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. These cases are clear examples that the Second Amendment is there to allow private citizens to own guns.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” He captures the situation perfectly. If people chose to give up the liberty to own guns. Then they would lose other liberties as well.

While gaining some extra safety may sound nice, sacrifing principles and liberty are harmful mistakes that only cause trouble later on. One example of this happening is through the PATRIOT Act. This act was intended to capture more information about terrorists, but instead it allows the NSA and the government to spy on your e-mails and violate your privacy.
People carrying firearms helps to protect the people. If a criminal thinks that someone they might harm has a gun, then they will more likely think about not committing the crime for fear of being shot. Gun control will take away everybody’s inalienable right.

Ryan Griffin is an Perspectives Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.org.