Odessa, Texas. Dayton, Ohio. El Paso, Texas. Virginia Beach, Virginia. These are just some of the places devastated by mass shootings this year. People say, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The people referenced were enabled to do so by the guns they were wielding, guns they should not have had access to. In the words of singer and entrepreneur Robyn Rihanna Fenty, “Imagine a world where it’s easier to get an AK-47 than a VISA.” This world is the United States of America.
A mass shooting is an instance in which four or more people are injured or killed. According to https://www.insider.com/number-of-mass-shootings-in-america-this-year-2019-8, as of September 3, 2019, there had been 289 mass shootings in the US. By this statistic, there have been more mass shootings than days in 2019. In 2018, there were 336 shootings in the year with the highest rate of school shootings ever recorded. In Odessa, a 17-month-old girl was shot in the face. There is no form of justification for that. There have been 625 incidents where 4 or more people have been injured or killed by gun violence since 2018. The truth can no longer be ignored, guns and gun violence have gotten out of hand.
The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear and keep arms in the United States. However, the right to bear and keep arms does not supersede another person’s right to feel and be safe. There are too many people who have suffered and are suffering from fear of guns and the destruction they leave in their wake. Lives have been lost and thousands of people have been injured due to gun violence. Innocent minds, even those of children, have been forever damaged by the effects. It may not be possible to control people, but you can control objects. How? Gun control.
According to https://www.britannica.com/story/gun-control-in-the-us , gun control is any legal measure intended to prevent or restrict the possession or use of guns, particularly firearms. I think the US is one of the easiest places to obtain a gun. Guns, even assault rifles, can easily be purchased at Walmart and a large majority of states, including Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, do not even require a background check before purchasing a gun. Guns are as widely available as common house commodities. The ease at which one can purchase a gun in the US is alarming.
The gun control laws in place are simply not efficient enough to contain gun violence. I think the establishment of stricter gun laws is the key to reducing gun violence and gun-related deaths in the country. Citizens must still reserve their right to keep and bear arms, but it must be observed in such a way that no citizen is put at risk. Before a gun permit is dispersed, a thorough background check and deep mental evaluation must be conducted.
Some raise the argument that “banning things never works”, but why is this only applied to guns? It was easy to ban abortion, it was easy to ban Muslims, and it was easy to ban marijuana, why not do the same to weapons of mass destruction? I don’t think all guns need to be banned, however, assault rifles do not need to be in the hands of anyone outside of the armed forces.
People kill people and people cannot be controlled. What can be controlled is the devices that those with murderous intentions have access to. With the implementation of stricter guns laws, the lives of thousands will be saved. Tightening the law may not be fully effective, but I think it will most definitely ameliorate the situation at hand.