What would go through your mind if you were in a bar and a maniacal psychopath appeared and started shooting at innocent people? To your family? You would fear for yourself and for the lives of those who are most precious to you; but would you think that if the government had made firearms illegal, this would never have happened? Certainly not! You probably would have thought that if you were allowed to carry a gun, you could not only protect yourself and your family, but also others around you. Many people wonder if carrying firearms is as useful a tool as many of us say they are. Some people think that guns are the cause of many crimes and injuries. Others argue that our society would be safer without citizens carrying guns on the streets. In my opinion, I am convinced that weapons help in disasters when help is so far away. Not only that, but firearms have already been allowed in all fifty states except Washington DC. Rather than restricting guns and gun owners, we should have the freedom to bear arms in order to protect ourselves and others around us through the use of firearms. In Making Gun Control Happen the author, Patrick Keefe, writes as a gun control advocate. He says one obvious change would be to “require a criminal background check for all gun purchases” in order to prevent criminals from obtaining a gun. [Keefe] While obviously what criminals do best is break laws, they would probably still smuggle guns illegally as a result. The idea of ​​background checks is to distinguish responsible, law-abiding citizens from scammers and criminals. Therefore it is a great example of the many things wrong with gun control. The Second Amendment says: “To us… half of the document… Np, nd Web. December 15, 2013 Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, “Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun,” (903 KB) Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Fall 1995 Gary Kleck, Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, 1997 John Lott, Jr., More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-control Laws, 2000Making Gun Control will happen." The New Yorker. PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, December 16, 2012. Web. December 17, 2013. Tom Loewy, “Local Group Lobbies for Gun Rights,” Register-Mail, March 12, 2010 William E. Sturdevant, PE, “An Analysis of Owner Arrest Rate of Concealed Weapons Licenses in Texas Compared to Arrest Rate for the Entire Texas Population,” (299 KB) www.txchia.org, September 1, 2000Winkler, Adam. “The Second Amendment is all about gun control.” The daily beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, February-March. 2013. Web. 17 December. 2013.