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Who should have a gun?
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Amendment II
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.
This is often the battle cry of the Conservative movement. This is the right to keep and bear arms. This is often the issue that most separates Conservatives and liberals.
While the Constitution of the United Sates guarantees us the right to keep and bear arms, can we reasonably think that each and every American citizen should have a gun? Should not the states be free to set certain limits? Really these questions are the core of the gun rights debate.
All of this comes up from a very disturbing crime that took place in the town of Inkster, Michigan. Inkster is a suburb of Detroit, Mi and is located about 14 miles east of that city. It is home to around 30,000 residents.
The average age of these residents is 31 years old, and nearly two thirds of Inkster residents are classified as African American. The median income level is right around 35k/year.
The average crime rate in Inkster tends to fall between the Michigan and national averages, but the rate of violent crime tends to be much higher. For example in 2006 Inkster had six murders, 27 rapes, 75 robberies (one of which this writer was a witness to), and 242 aggravated assaults. Pretty bad numbers for a city of this size, but it appears things are getting worse.
In talking with a few Inkster Police officers, this writer learned of a very disturbing incident where a young man shot a young woman five times with .45 pistol because the young woman would not concede to the young man’s advances.
This story comes to light since this incident had a few witnesses, otherwise it would very well could have never been solved, since their was no logical motive for a crime like this there is really no investigative strategy to find its perpetrator.
Now we could argue if this young man should have had a gun or not, but regardless of that debate this man would have had a gun anyway. No matter what laws are passed this man still would have had this gun, and he more than likely would have committed this crime. There are no laws that can save society from criminals of this nature.
Conservatives often say if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. This tends to be a very true statement, but society needs another mechanism to deal with crime of this nature.
A young woman was shot because she didn’t want to “holla at” at a young man. While this crime should cause shock waves across the city of Inkster, the State of Michigan, and even the country. However since Gun violence in and around the Detroit area has become the norm, this incident will simply be written off as another violent crime and soon forgotten.
While the Constitution guarantees us the right to bear arms, society must come up with something that can control crimes of this nature. What those controls should be is really the debate we need to have.
