The Relationship Between Crime and Guns in the United States :: Second Amendment The Right To Bear Arms

The right to bear arms is an American right featured in the second Amendment of the Constitution. In the 18th century when the constitution was written, times were different, there was a need for citizens to arm themselves to insure the safety of the society as a whole. In the modern world, the police department preserves the safety of society and there is no need for citizens to carry weapons. The founding fathers of the Constitution could never have imagined the horrendous outcome of their actions. Every year too many lives are claimed as the result of American's owning an excessive number of firearms. Compared to other western countries that have considerably stricter gun control laws America is still viewed as â€Å"The Wild-Wild West† (ARPP, 66). However, is there a relationship between crime and firearms? In this second amendment our right to have a gun, are we dooming ourselves with higher crime rates and more horrific crimes just to have the right to have a gun in our house? This paper will set forth and find the results of studies conducted to find a conclusion. This is a very important issue when it comes to sociology and our society. The importance of violence and force as sources of power has only recently begun to achieve recognition among sociologists. Power has traditionally been conceptualized as deriving from lasting attributes of persons and from their position in the social structure such as sex and race. However, when power is examined at the interpersonal level it is typically viewed as deriving from family role and gender. These sources of power ultimately derive to some extent from a capacity to use physical force and violence. This capacity often relies partly on a rather transitory attribute of the person, the possession of weaponry. The single most important factor that sets human violence apart from aggression among lower animals is arguably the human’s greater technological capacity to inflict harm on another creature. These â€Å"tools of death† are readily available to humans and are vastly more lethal than even the most deadly natural equipment of any other species (Kleck, 670). Yet, little is known about the impact of weaponry on violence or how weaponry is used to coerce compliance in hostile social encounters. Firearms are seen as violence enhancing devices, it is just assumed that the possession along with the use of firearms increase the chances of the victim to be injured or killed.