Gun Violence Prevention
The Right to Bear Arms vs. the Need for Public Protection
In 1791, the States ratified the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads: “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.” The history of gun control in America since that time has been one of ongoing tension between the right of an individual to own and use firearms and the responsibility of government to prevent crime. Starting with the first major Federal firearms legislation — the National Firearms Act of 1934, enacted to curb Prohibition-era crime by taking certain lethal…
