In the United States the right to own a gun is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. The text of the Second Amendment states: “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” (Adams, 2004). The founding fathers borrowed this idea from Niccolò Machiavelli, the Italian thinker. He wrote about the weapons necessary for freedom to defend itself, hunt, and protect the state from foreign invasion. For two hundred years, this tradition has become an integral part of American culture that has given rise to numerous cultural phenomena that have become the hallmark of the United States. For example, duels in the desert areas of the Wild West and mafia wars between criminal gangs in Chicago have formed the basis of numerous books, films and video games that have become part of American culture. Recently, however, calls for “gun control” have become hot topics when civilian mass shootings occur. At the end of the 18th century, the United States did not have a regular army, but only an armed militia. Now opponents of free gun ownership are trying to prove that the Constitution refers only to weapons needed for a militia. However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with this “narrow” interpretation and held in 2008 that Americans' right to bear arms is not tied to their participation in a militia (Agresti & Smith, 2013). At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, a 20-year-old named Adam Lanza armed himself with a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle and two pistols, a Glock and a Sig Sauer. First he killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, 52 years old, in the house, and then he killed 20 children and 6 adults... middle of the paper... effectively counter criminals, they must be equally equipped with assault weapons . Such a measure is in the interests of arms manufacturers, but places an additional burden on the federal budget. Even within the ruling Democratic Party there is no unity on the issue of gun control. Millions of ordinary Americans consider the right to own guns to be their sacred constitutional right. Today, supporters and opponents of gun control are in conflict. Both sides have the same goal: to reduce the number of murders in the country. They propose to achieve this by choosing one approach over another: a total ban on gun ownership or allowing the public to defend themselves with a gun, without fear of prosecution. The decision to choose one or the other may be impossible as both are overly extreme and a compromise between them is unlikely to be reached soon.