TS TO FIGHT WITHbyDon B. Kates, Jr.The right to gun ownership in the United States of America , guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution, has been a controversial and much debated issue in the 20th century. Don B. Kates, Jr. attacks the views of those in favor of gun control in his extremely informative article on the subject. Although lengthy, Kates' article sets up each individual argument for gun control and then masterfully shoots each one down with well researched and often chilly statistics.Although a staunch supporter of 2nd Amendment rights, Kates does not take the stand of the enthusiastic gun owner toting a bumper sticker proclaiming "Guns Don't Kill People, People Do". He looks at it from an intelligent and informed angle. Though hard research and the support of many experts in the criminology world, Kates provides the reader with a new way to look at gun ownership and the benefits of ownership as a deterrent to crime. Kates begins with the definition of a murderer. As he puts it, most gun control advocates would have one believe that persons who own guns to use in the defense of their homes and family are common murders. They would have one believe that "...the typical homicide offender is just an ordinary person" with "no previous criminal record"(qtd. In Kates 52). This uninformed opinion, however, is not true as Kates sets out to prove. F.B.I. records show that "two-thirds of all of murders to have previous felony conviction records"(52). When looking at the history of some other murders "[their] prior violence may have been directed against relatives or acquaintances"(52), thus providing Ellison 11a pattern of violence. For many reasons these prior acts of violence go unrecorded. Their inclination towards violence is the reason behind their murders, not the fact that they own a handgun. A person with a penchant for violence towards a family member or friend can just as easily murder that person with a kni...
