My Stance

Posted by Dianna Yuan

People will probably think I’m too paranoid but I believe that the second amendment should be restricted more. I can understand that people living in the countryside and/or suburbs may need a gun for self protection from hostile creatures however do people living in the city need them?

The city tends to to have a better police department than those in the countryside and/or suburbs because the city has more money to fund their police department. The second amendment was originally added as a means of self protection, but when you have a well funded police department is it such a good idea for everyone to have a gun? I can see the argument that you need guns to prevent the government and the police from becoming a tyrant but couldn’t the opposite be said the same?

If everyone had a gun I don’t think the government and the police would be able to maintain peace. Police officers would have to work with the fear of retaliation from the people, causing many to doubt whether becoming a police officer was a good choice. Police officers do not have a very high pay and yet they many risk their lives everyday to protect peace. If the risk became higher, there would be less people willing to become a police officer. Humans will always try to preserve their life.

According to social psychology, when there are more people, people are less inclined to take action himself because they believe that others will do it for them. That means people in the city won’t necessarily help others in trouble just because they have a gun. In fact people in the city would be more inclined to cause mass shootings because people living in the cities tend to be exposed to more stress than those living in the suburbs and.or countryside. When people accumulate too much stress, people will become mentally unstable and commit things that they normally do not do.

I’m not saying that people in the city aren’t allowed to purchase and own guns, I’m simply stating that there needs to be stricter gun laws in the cities. If you look at European countries, there are significantly lower rates of high school shootings when compared to the U.S. These European countries also have stricter gun laws. I believe that the two correlate, stricter gun laws means less mass shootings. I do not agree with the belief that by having everyone own a gun, people will take matters into their own hands and stop the assailant himself.