Society is riddled with inequities, some large, some intrinsic, and some clearly displayed within American society. These may include the working class victims of capital greed, the unrepresented minority, or the unfairly convicted. These however, are certain examples of the less favorable risks that we must acknowledge in order to advance the aggregate of American society. Capitalism is what has made this nation great, and in order to reap the benefits of such a system, we need to acknowledge the associated risks of such a prosperous system, including the business’ “right to fail.” The same most certainly goes for gun rights. In order to be able to further a healthy American society, we must first come to terms with our second amendment, which clearly labels the undeniable, “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” While this motto wide spread throughout that sea of gun owners may, on occasion be questioned due to tragedies such as that witnessed in Las Vegas, the motto’s very amendment backing is in no way at fault.

The second amendment itself was instated within our society not to be manipulated by the occasional psychopath, but for this nation’s protection. Whenever America was in need of a “well regulated” militia, American citizens were bestowed a role in the protection of our freedoms. Now however, we are still in need of such a system in order to protect our personal well-being. The Las Vegas shooter was somehow able to bypass the gun laws solidly in place and obtain 18 weapons, at least two of these being fully automatic, which this villain then turned upon his fellow countrymen. Not only was this an act of public fear, but a painful reminder of the everlasting vulnerability of Americans to society’s evils that can do us harm. Due to his not having any morally-competent, gun owning Americans to be challenged with, he was able to extract the most death and despoilment of beautiful life before he turned the gun around. How many more Americans need to be callously annihilated by mass murderers before it becomes clear that Americans must be guaranteed their right to bear arms? As our current world delves deeper into problems such as the callous ambitions of rogue nations, to even the terrible tragedies made by terror, we need to be secure, for our families, for our friends, and for what we hold dear, we must be ever ready in our ability to fight for what we believe in, and to secure the security which first responders are not always there to provide. Government workers or not, on this ever-inconstant earth, we must fend for ourselves, in dilemmas of utmost immediacy.

In 2012, there were 1.2 million instances of violent crimes within the United States, which doesn’t only entail 1.2 million encroachments upon our sacred right to safety as Americans, but this also means there was somewhere around a million instances in which guns could have been used appropriately for self-defense. According to the 2007 -2011 National crime victimization survey however, there were only 338,700 instances of guns being used in self-defense, instances in which Americans rightfully made use of the 2nd amendment to defend themselves, while 230 of these instances resulted in homicides. This roughly averages out to only around 60 instances per year in a nation of 326 MILLION people. While this may seem like a lot to some, keep in mind that according to a study taken in 2017, there are an estimated 88 guns for every 100 people.  Further more, according to the Pew Research center, in 2015, over 50% of all Americans support preserving our gun rights as they now are.  Not to mention, for a nation of well over 284 MILLION guns, it would be herculean difficulty for our government to continue to remove these gun rights. This entails, that in the end, disgracing our 2nd amendment right to bear arms would only be met massively pervasive and quite dangerous-dissatisfaction.