Although the second amendment was written in the early years of the United States’ founding, most of the controversy has come in modern times. In fact, the issue has become so controversial that the Supreme Court has denied to interfere with every gun control case after the McDonald v. Chicago case in 2010.
One of the major controversies concerning gun control is whether it violates the second amendment. Although the Supreme Court can declare certain laws unconstitutional and veto that law, changing an amendment is a completely different story. To repeal an amendment, another amendment has to be made as in the case of the 18th amendment. The 18th amendment had mandated nationwide prohibition, something that many Americans did not like. As a result, those who were unable to give up alcohol went to the black market to obtain it. The U.S. government also found that it would be more beneficial to legalize alcohol to obtain money through taxes and to deter the growth of the black market. In 1933, 13 years after the 18th amendment was ratified, the 21th amendment was ratified to repeal the 18th.
Although an amendment has been repealed before due to its controversy, the second amendment hasn’t. The second amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, a section of the U.S. Constitution that was used to get the Anti-Federalists (the ones who were against the ratification of the Constitution and for more state power) to support the Constitution. Many consider the Bill of Rights as the most basic right every American should have and denying those rights is the equivalent to breaking the law. Nevertheless, there have been more and more people demanding stricter gun laws and in some cases want to even repeal the second amendment.
One of the major reasons for the stricter gun laws is the fact that guns are used to kill people.
Whenever there is an incident where a gun, or many guns, is used kill many people politicians are often times forced to side with pro gun laws or against gun laws. Many of the statements that are considered to be controversial are those made by the politicians who are against gun laws. Trump once stated on NBC that, “I can make the case that if there were more guns in the room than [the shooter’s], fewer people would have died. Fewer people would have been horribly injured,” in response to the Oregon shooting. One of the more controversial statements was when Ben Carson once stated that if everyone in Germany had guns, the Holocaust could have been stopped when asked about his stance. No one can prove that those two are right, yet no one can truly deny the fact it might have. All everyone can do is speculate.
In Trump’s case, Trump acknowledges that the U.S. has a higher rate of high school shooting than any other country however he dismissed it as a result of the second amendment’s right to bear arms. Instead, Trump claims that culprit is either mentally ill or expresses copycat behavior. Contrary to his statement, the data collected from the Department of Health and Human Services claim that those who are mentally ill or expresses copycat behavior commit only 3 to 5 percent of all the violent cases.