Essay On Gun Culture

1,384,171 is the number of gun related deaths in America from 1968 to 2011. 1,171,177 is the number of war-related deaths throughout American history. In just 43 years, more Americans have died from gunfire than have died in all the wars of this country 's history. Since 1963, the number of homicides involving firearms has increased 48 percent in the United States while the number of homicides committed with other weapons has risen only 10 percent. The sudden influx of gun violence correlates with a change in interpretation of the Second Amendment, which states that “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" (Second Amendment, Bill of Rights). Despite this high rate of gun crime, mass shootings in America show no sign of disappearing, as gun culture is deeply rooted in the American spirit. Many Americans view the gun as a symbol of freedom representing the heart of the nation’s foundation. When they think of guns, they picture the colonial

By 2008, these right-wing jurists held a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and could thus overturn generations of legal precedents and declare that the Second Amendment established an individual right for Americans to own guns. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court for the first time declared that the Second Amendment protects a civilian’s right to keep a handgun in his home for self-defense. Even so, the ruling did not address whether gun owners have a right to carry a weapon in public for self-defense. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote on behalf of the Court’s majority that the Second Amendment: “is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For instance, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment” (Scalia). But the NRA continues to take what they want out of laws and rulings, omitting information that could harm their