AK 47s Under Second Amendment

Kate Sinz, Reporter

For under $700, you can get a firearm that was never designed for hunting, but specifically for war.

In this Jan. 16, 2013 file photo, assault weapons and handguns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply in Springfield, Ill. The deadline for local governments in Illinois to enact assault weapons ordinances is Friday, July 19, 2013. In recent days, about a dozen communities have passed ordinances either banning assault weapons or imposing regulations concerning how they are stored and transported. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

If you want to buy an assault rifle, it isn’t that difficult. All you need is a bit of time and money. But why is it so easy to buy a gun specifically made to rapidly kill people? The Constitution gives people the right to bare arms, and I don’t want to diminish that right, but the second amendment shouldn’t go as far as allowing assault rifles.

According to Every Town Research, on an average day, 93 Americans are killed by guns. On average, 11,564 deaths per year are homicides, the deliberate killing of an individual. The numbers aren’t decreasing. In 2011, the number of homicides was 11,068. However, in 2015, the number was up to 12,972.

The Telegraph explained the design of the AK 47 which was made by a man named Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947. The AK 47 was designed in such a way that made it only useful for killing people. Not an animal or a target. He made it to be simple and strong. With about 75 to 100 million worldwide, according to The Globalist, AK 47s are the most readily available assault rifles.

Many people do not think about the original purpose of the second amendment. It wasn’t meant to allow people to go buy guns and use them freely; the second amendment was made for a logical reason. A reason that is no longer plausible in today’s American society.

According to Seeker, framers got the amendment from their English roots. English law required that men practice using their firearm in case they were called to defend the country. While we do still draft today, we have special training programs that teach everything a militant would need to know before going to battle, which means we do not need people to actively practice with guns on their own. The second amendment was also proposed at a time when the firearms available could only shoot one shot before needing reloaded.

We live in a society where gun-obsessed people exist. If timid politicians continue to resist offending the gun lobby, people will continue to die. Amendments are amendments because they have the ability to be altered. This is what we should be doing with the second amendment. We should be getting rid of the assault rifles that are the causes of multiple deaths. We should not get rid of the entire amendment, but we should also not not keep the whole thing. We need to modify the amendment to make America safe.

According to CNN, former president Barack Obama told the National Urban League, “AK-47s belong in the hands of our soldiers… Not on the streets of our cities.” And he couldn’t be more right.