Myth: More than six in ten Americans say guns make homes safer.
Fact: Research suggests that firearms in the home actually increase the risk of violent death.
The United States has a venerable tradition of gun ownership, but Americans are also justified in being concerned about preventable gun violence. Beyond Second Amendment considerations, though, many of us have succumbed to propaganda that makes reasonable measures politically impossible. Many believe that our right to bear arms derives solely from the Founders’ desire to ensure citizens can overthrow their own government. Therefore, any gun control is an unconstitutional step toward tyranny. Many of these same voters believe that gun control makes crime worse by denying guns to law-abiding citizens and that more guns make us safer. But is any of this true? The evidence from at home and abroad suggests that none of that is true.
At Civics Nation, we believe that the right to bear arms—like any other right—is not an absolute right. Therefore, gun ownership can and should be subject to reasonable regulation. After all, the Second Amendment is one of the few places in the Constitution that uses the word “regulated.”
