Thesis: Defining our Rights

In recent months, the issue of gun control has leaped into the foreground of political debate. With increasing media coverage of mass shootings, even our Commander-in-Chief has listed gun control as a priority during his second term. With the president's support, politicians, such as Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, have begun to unveil new legislation to ban "assault weapons" in an attempt to curtail the number of shootings. However, these politicians seem to ignore crime statistics and repeatedly fail to mention how far this ban will stretch. In order to properly evaluate the step our country should take regarding gun control, we must first seek answers. What exactly are these "assault weapons"? What about our Second Amendment rights? Although reducing violent crime in the United States is an important issue and politicians' cries to increase gun control for the safety of our citizens may be appealing at first glance, we must look into the facts before we begin to surrender our precious rights outlined in the Constitution by our founding fathers.