Gun violence has been on the rise for years. It is becoming easier and easier to buy guns, whether parents have them in their homes or gun stores sell what they think are real IDs to teens and adults who are depressed and cannot deal with their situations. Because of this, they lash out and actions have consequences. Am I right? They’ve talked about letting teachers have them to protect their students and staff in case someone tries to break in and do something they might regret. However, what stops the teachers from hurting themselves, their students or their colleagues? In my opinion, this is nothing compared to the years of pain the black communities have suffered. The police have guns for “protection” but they still use it to hurt innocent black men and women and orphan their children. This leaves their families in fear, confused about what it means to be an American. They question what the saying “The American Dream” really means and protects. The military has guns to protect against threats to our country. But what stops them and their PTSD from lashing out what they think is real? Or from doing something stupid that you can never take back because they cannot deal with the stress of their jobs? Stores have guns to make money and sell to people with the means of survival or the means of harming others who’ve done them wrong or done nothing. People use guns because they’re tired of feeling this hurt and pain and they want it to stop. A single bullet can do that. Guns give us power and I think everyone can agree that’s why they use them today. For power, to take away. So that leaves the question I am asking. And answer it as honestly as you can. Is the use of having a gun for survival? Or to do harm? Why do you need a gun? Let’s be honest, people might say we need them and they don’t know why. It could be as simple as for protection. But life’s not that simple, so the answer cannot be that simple. 

Let us look back a decade to when the Second Amendment and the rest of the Bill of Rights were created and written on December 15th, 1791. Our founding fathers (Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Thomas Jfferson, Thomas Paine, John Aams, etc.) were part of the Constitutional Convention, but came together after the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Founders turned to the composition of the states’ and then the federal Constitution. The Bill of Rights were meant to protect the cousins and their rights. However, it was not deemed that important. Despite this, it was crucial that they achieved ratification. Thanks to the efforts of James Madison, they did, and the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791. If you saw Hamilton the musical, (and I will after this whole craziness is done. I love broadway. So much) you know Aaron Burr probably gave the inspiration for the Second Amendment. He was Hamilton’s friend, but Burr felt he took everything from him. This made Burr snap. We don’t realize how far we snap until we’re picking berries off a bush in the darkness. I think about what happened to Burr when he committed a vile act against our founder. The duel between Burr and Hamilton happens far after the Bill of Rights was ratified. The duel occurred at Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. It is possible that Burr snapped way before that. Someone might have stolen his lunch money or he wasn’t invited into “the room where it happened.” We don’t know what went on in his mind. History only written by the victors. Can we change that? I think we can if we care enough. Do we care enough? Eiza Schylure Hamilton did a lot more than what her husband did. But at the same time she fought for him and lived another 50 years until part of this world to be with her family in heaven. The way I see it, if you’re good and pure, you go to heaven. If you’re bad and evil then you go to hell. If the bill of rights were people, the First Amendment would go to heaven while the Second would go to hell.

In the 1800s, technology changed since Hamilton and Washington and John Laurens and Hercules Mulligan were alive. Pistols and Rockets were created, which let off three to five at a time. Now, we have shotguns, revolvers and pistols, which have changed immensely since James Madsion wrote the Second Amendment. No one can predict the future unless you’re a clairvoyant, or a seer. My guess is Madison never anticipated that technology would change so vastly. He never thought that people would go into schools and kill little kids and stop them from achieving. He never thought that people would be out there wreaking havoc on our country. He never thought that people would abuse their right to hold a gun and hurt people who look nothing like them. The police were created for one thing. To bring slaves back. Dead or alive. Injured or not. That was their job. And it seems like it’s still their job. We may not be put in cages, but it’s still there. Slavery and segergaton is still there, just in differnet forms.

So I read that, and I don’t know if it’s old news. Another unarmed black man is dead. Officials say he tried to get away, but that’s just one side of the story. They are trying to make it into something. Why not stop with the whitewashing, and start with the real facts and truth. History is made up of one-sided stories. I believe there’s more than just one side of the story, there are two. 5, 20. Why do we get to hear one? Despite school shootings mostly becoming a thing of the past, what about mass shootings? The Asians and Pacific Islanders are experiencing this right now due to COVID or just plain arrogance. Although people of color have been experiencing this for decades, I feel we can all learn from this and work together to stop it. Black lives matter, Asian, Pacific Islanders lives matter. All lives should matter, but they cannot until the guns are gone and the killings stop. We all deserve equity and equality. I plead we get rid of the Second Amendment all together. We don’t need guns, they create more problems then solve. They’re deadly and dangerous. They are in the wrong hands, like a racist police, and arrogant people. They lash out and snap to what they don’t understand. Because of this, gun voice waves rise and we become dystopian. Gathering in secret, running. The Second Amendment was great for the time in which it was written. However, we have come a long way from duels and scandals. We can all do better and be better. We all should matter for the good of our nation and our people. It is so hard to always live in fear of what’s next. Of whose next. They took an oath, and if they can break an oath and call it justice for “fearing for their lives.” What does this truly say about Americans, if they can act a certain way and be a certain way, but when it really comes down to it, they choose privilege and freedom and to have a gun and ignore life. Then who are we? We have a right to protect ourselves, I get that. I do, but to what extent? Decades of oppression and fear makes you who you are and you will come out stronger than ever. I vote to get rid of guns, get rid of the Second Amendment, and reshape America to what it is supposed to be. Just because the country was founded on racism, doesn’t mean it has to still be a racist country. Right? The past was once our future. And now the future is our future. We must protect it, and the Second Amendment does more harm than good. So my question is like in the beginning. Is the use of having a gun for survival? Or to do harm? Whether for fun, or mentally messed up or broken. Why do you need a gun?  Why do we?