Argument 1 Rebuttal

When the Second Amendment was written as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the United States of America was protected by the Continental Army, which was comprised of citizen-soldiers. Also, many citizens still hunted for their food and needed to have the right to own a rifle or shotgun in order to provide for their families. However, times have changed and firearms do not play the same prevalent role as they did 200 years ago. Farmers and businessmen no longer comprise the United States Army but instead, full-time soldiers. Hunting, also, has strict laws about clip size and ammunition, which assault rifles do not fit. There needs to be changes made in legislation to limit clip size and ban assault rifles from citizens’ possession.

            The United States Army was officially founded in 1784 when it was changed from the Continental Army to the United States Army. The army began to change from being comprised of citizen soldiers to full-time soldiers who trained in military tactics. Today, the United States has one of the strongest military’s in the world. However, when the army was made-up of citizen soldiers, it was important for them to have the right to possess firearms. Now that the army is made-up of full-time soldiers, there is no longer the need for citizens to possess military firearms like assault rifles. These weapons are made for the military with a sole purpose to end human life. Citizens of this nation, protected by one of the best military’s in the world, have no need for these weapons.

When this country was first being settled, hunting was a way of life for a great majority of this nation. However, in the last 200 years, that way of life has changed and hunting has become a past-time. Also, the laws and regulations of hunting have been established to control the safety of everybody in the woods and disqualify assault rifles from being legal hunting firearms. The size of the clip is too large to be used legally to hunt. In the most popular form of hunting in the United States, deer hunting, the hunter is only allowed to have 5 bullets in the gun. Most assault rifles have high-capacity magazines that can hold up to 30 bullets. Also, with many assault rifles being sold with silencers and flash-hiders, attachments that are banned when hunting, make assault rifles illegal to use on game animals. Assault rifles have no purpose other than the killing of human life as they cannot be used to hunt.