" (Foster, 1999) Within this framework there is no reference to gun ownership by individuals and according to Foster's report: "...it is reasonable to assume that private arms are intended for destruction under the term." (Foster, 1999)
The work of David B. Kopel, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan and presently a practicing attorney in Colorado writes in the work entitled: "Trust the People: The Case Against Gun Control" a policy brief published at the Cato Institute that: "Gun control is based on the faulty notion that ordinary American citizens are too clumsy and ill-tempered to be trusted with weapons. Only through the blatant abrogation of explicit constitutional rights is gun control even possible." (1988) Kopel relates that less than one in 3,000 gun owners commit murder. Each year approximately 7,000 individuals commit suicide and 300 or fewer people die in accidents involving handguns. As a matter of fact, police are 5.5 times more likely to hit an innocent bystander when shooting a gun than a civilian shooter. Finally, it must be related that guns are used effectively by civilians against criminals. Statistics show that in the case where a robbery victim does not defend himself the robberies are successful 88% of the time. Kopel states that gun control further violates the Fourth Amendment which states that there must exist 'probable cause' for search and seizure and furthermore that gun control has "...a deleterious effect on the Fifth Amendment (due process of law). Gun control is also suspect under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, for it harms those groups that have been traditionally victimized by society's inequities." (1988) the forefathers of the United States who led the American Revolution were greatly in support of widespread gun ownership. Kopel relates the fact that: "Virtually all the political philosophers whose ideas were known to the Founders - such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Beccaria, Locke, and Sidney - agreed that a republic could not endure long without an armed citizenry." (1988)
SUMMARY and CONCLUSION
It is clear that gun control does not deter crime and it is just as clear that gun control has not slowed down the trafficking of guns but in fact research shows just the opposite effects of gun control. Gun control actually results in those who need guns for protection from criminals failing to have a gun while the criminals are still able to obtain the guns that they need to commit the crimes against unarmed citizens with no protection. It is critically important that American citizens become informed of the issues surrounding gun control and that the American public become engaged in the ongoing dialogue relating to this issue. While certainly there must be laws relating to gun ownership, it is not necessary that those laws render the average American citizen unable to apply for and be granted the right to own a gun for self-protection as well as for protection of their home and their family. Furthermore, the sensationalism of news media hype should be addressed in a manner that requires news media to retract or correct false statements in news reports of issues surrounding gun control and the commission of gun crimes. Clearly, there are several provisions within the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights that absolutely in no manner are cohesive with gun control laws and it is the citizens of the United States that must take issue through contacting their senators and representatives concerning gun control legislation...
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