Are our Second Amendment freedoms at risk?

Fear is a major part of a person’s life. People cannot go for long without feeling some sense of fear. For me that fear is the loss of rights and freedom. My freedom and my rights that were granted to me by our founding fathers are extremely important to me. Not just my rights, but the rights of every single U.S. citizen, they were granted to all of us. However, those rights are in jeopardy; they are being changed by the same people we put into office as our leaders.

The Second Amendment says, “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.” However, that amendment is the one law that people are trying to change. That is the one individual right that we are going to lose if we do not fight the powers that try to take them away in the first place.

As a daughter of a military man there is a phrase that I have heard several times, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” That statement is true in many ways. A gun is an object that can only be operated by a human. Guns don’t think, and they certainly cannot hold a grudge toward a person or animal.

Where would we be today if our guns were taken away from us? What many citizens don’t realize is guns actually make our society safer then without guns. A study on crime rates actually proves that very fact. Due to Washington D.C’s tight gun restrictions, their crime rates are higher than most places.

One city that shows when the gun laws are more relaxed there is less crime. Kennesaw, Ga., is a small town, and an extremely peaceful city. This town’s law states that every household must have at least one firearm with ammunition. Since that law was put into place in 1982, the city has only seen three murders; two with a knife in 1984 and 1987, and one with a gun in 1997. Their crime rate decreased dramatically after that law was put into place.

I understand that people are upset about all the school shootings that have recently happened, but you need to look at the big picture. Take away our guns and you take away a freedom that we have had since the end of our War for Independence. Our founding fathers purposely gave us the right to protect ourselves.

After looking at many statistics from many different places, around 40 percent of American households have guns. Our same leaders who are trying to take away our guns have 10 to 20 body guards around them at all times, and those men are carrying concealed weapons. If you took away those weapons, what does that mean for the protection of our leaders?

I respect my leaders for the positions in office. We chose them to be our leaders and to make decisions for us. However, I will not stand by them when they try to take away a freedom that not only keeps me safe, but also my family safe. Taking away guns is like taking away our freedom of religious beliefs, or taking away our freedom of speech. It will not end well if they do succeed.

Ashley Leach is a journalism student at Wasilla High School.