The United States of America runs well because of the system of checks and balances in the government. The Second Amendment provides civilians with an important "check" to the power of the government. The right to bear arms stands as an important part of freedom and liberty, because it gives people a way to fight tyranny both at home and from abroad. When laws are passed regulating gun ownership, it is only the first piece in a progression of violations of freedoms. A prime example of the power of personal gun ownership to fight tyranny can be seen in Poland and other European countries during the beginning of World War II. One main reason that these countries were taken over so easily was because of the lack of personal gun ownership by their citizens. And after moving into an area, the Nazis would confiscate any stray firearms owned by civilians and strictly forbid personal gun ownership, making the civilians utterly powerless to defend themselves when the Nazis began to commit atrocities. The NRA supports the power and importance of the Second Amendment when it claims that "the Second Amendment remains the first right among equals, because it is the one we turn to when all else fails".
Public opinion favors the Second Amendment's protection of gun ownership, as a U.S. News and World Report poll found that seventy five percent of Americans felt that gun ownership is a right protected by the Constitution. The Supreme Court also supports the Second Amendment as evinced by the 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment gave individuals the right to bear arms, finding a controversial D.C. law that banned handgun ownership unconstitutional. Then in the 2010 case of McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court ruled that all state and local governments must also follow the Second Amendment as outlined by the 2008 case. This shows that even the most powerful group in the United States government-the group charged with the sole responsibility of judging the constitutionality of the nation's laws-agrees that the Second Amendment adamantly protects American citizens' right to own guns, and that this vital Constitutional freedom must never be threatened.
Just as the Constitution functions to protect citizens' freedoms and liberties, gun control laws are designed to prevent people from abusing guns and harming others. If gun control legislation stopped criminals from committing crimes and murders, and left legal gun owners alone, there would be no argument. Congress passes gun control laws because they are believed to reduce violence and save lives. Statistics from several large cities, including New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and others, show a reduction in the number of gun-related crimes during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in 1993 more than 582,000 murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults involving guns took place, but in 2003 that number dropped to 348,000. 