“Fifty Million Handguns” is by Adam Smith, and it basically states that we need to ban handguns, but not rifles that are registered. Mr. Smith tries to stay neutral in this never ending debate about handguns. “The Right to Arms” by Edward Abbey is a short story that strongly supports the idea that Americans’ should be able to bear arms. Reading these articles alone could change your view on the topic. Though the opinions in these articles are somewhat different, they both make references to some of the same topics that deal with handguns. Using other countries as examples for what America should or should not do is one of these topics. America can learn from these other countries, but I believe that they have their own circumstances. They are a world superpower, and other countries look to them as examples. Another topic they both refer to is the registration and limitations of guns. This is a very sensitive topic. They both also use emotional appeal in their work. They try to make the reader think, what if this actually happ

More than half of Abbey’s short story makes references to examples of other countries. He starts out by giving examples of countries that either punish peasants for having guns, or countries that ridiculous laws such as only letting the wealthy be gun- owners. He states, “ In medieval England a peasant caught with a sword in his possession would be strung up on a gibbet and left there for the crows..... Only members of the ruling class were entitled to own and bear weapons.” Another example of a corrupt country was Nazi Germany. Abbey used them in his example when he said, “ In Nazi Germany the possession of firearms by a private citizen of the third Reich was considered a crime against the state; the statutory penalty was death- by hanging.” These are just a couple of examples that Abbey didn’t want the United States to follow. I don’t think that this was a fair judgement of these countries in comparison to the U.S. The countries that he made examples of were not democratic countries. It wasn’t their choice on who to vote in to make the rules that the people want. He also put in the countries that do a good job of letting their people have the necessary freedoms. The ones that came to his mind are Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, United States, and the British Commonwealth. When Smith is making his anti-gun arguments, he says that the British, Canadians, and Japanese

Some topics in this essay:
Edward Abbey, Adam Smith, Nazi Germany, John Lennon’s, Canadians Japanese, South Africa-, , Germany Abbey, Commonwealth Smith, bear arms, emotional appeal, personal experience, countries examples, bear arms reading, fear reader, nazi germany, short story, guns article, arms reading, ruling class,