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Once again, this is a difficult thing to talk about because it is so frightening, heavy, and very real.
If you have been following the news you know there have been several horrific shootings in the country this month. Since the Dark Knight shootings on July 20, there have been shootings at Texas A&M, the Sihk Temple shootings in Wisconsin and now this in New York City.
It’s awful when nowhere in the country feels safe. Yet, most of these shootings go unacknowledged by politicians without more than a sympathetic apology. Four mass shootings in a month tells us something about our society–it’s in crisis. Why aren’t we looking closer at our neighbors and ourselves to figure out what is creating this environment and mindset that leads people to do such awful things? Why are people so angry, so disturbed that they feel like it is necessary to take innocent lives?
There is no political statement behind these violent actions. These are no acts in the name of survival. There is no clear motivation. There is no point. It’s not that having a point makes killing justifiable, but having a reason makes it understandable and therefore stoppable. This is senseless violence, plain and simple.
The only real way to stop mass murder is gun control. Did you know that after the Colorado shooting, gun sales increased by 41 percent? People want to feel protected. Yet there has scarcely been a shooting where an armed victim was saved because they had a gun. We need real restrictions. Real background checks. Getting a gun is a little too easy.
I’m a city girl, I know, I know. Some of you come from families who have guns, who use them to hunt, who have real purposes for them. Some of you come from families where guns mean something, where they are used responsibly, and where no one has a violent bone in their body. I understand why saying a lack of gun control is the problem might offend you. Just consider this. You have a lot of freedom in this country but you give some of that up for protection. You have free will as a human, but when you’re a citizen you’re not allowed to steal because it infringes on someone else’s freedom.
Your right to a gun is not more important than someone’s right to live. That should be a simple fact. The unwillingness to give up a tiny bit of freedom that would eventually save hundreds of lives is heartbreaking. Here is when someone will say, “Anything can be a weapon! Are you going to ban rocks now?” That’s not a very good argument. If I throw a rock at someone I can hurt them, yes. If I fire a gun I can kill a lot more people in a very short amount of time before anyone has the chance to stop me.
Guns are too dangerous for them to be commonplace, household items. They’re not necessary for everyone. How many accidental deaths do there have to be? How much statistical data must prove that if you own a gun you are more likely (4.5 times more likely) to get shot and (4.2 times more likely) to be killed?
Guns can be safe for you as a responsible individual, but they are just not good for society. Be brave, give up some freedom to save lives. The world is too scary, there are too many tragedies, there are too many reckless people, for us not to.
What do you think about gun control? Let us know in the comments!
All gun control does is make it so that people can only own guns illegally. That means that only criminals will have them. People won’t be able to defend themselves.
And what needs to be done about the shootings is to change people’s mindsets about guns.
Why do teenagers go and shoot up their schools? Most of the time they say it’s because they saw it on tv or they had a blackout. What we need to do is offer better help to people with mental problems and have better security in all these public places.
Do you think that maybe if a security guard had a firearm that the problem could have been taken care of? I do.
And as for the shooting in Colorado- yeah it was tragic and I wish the guy who did it would burn in hell for eternity- but maybe if someone had a gun with them they could have shot the shooter and saved a lot of lives?
Banning guns just makes them cool. It’s just like prohibition, once people weren’t allowed to drink they made booze illegally and drank twice as much.
i couldnt have said it better myself
First off guns will never be completely restricted from the public. It’s impossible. The right to have arms is in the bill of rights, you can’t reverse that. I live In the country and there is not a single person I know who doesn’t own a gun. They all have guns but none of them are fully automatic machine guns or m-16s or m-14s or any part of a war arsenal. Some people need guns for self preservation: animals attacking. There are a lot of animals where I live. I’m not saying everybody deserves a gun but I’m not saying remove them from our lives or tax them so nobody can get them. I’m saying keep it simple for the publics right to have arms. Nothing automatic and nothing that the army has too. Simply remove the types of guns that have been used in all these mass murders. And the equipment that goes along with them.
I live in colorado and I have been to the theater were the dark knight shooting happened. I think that guns shouldn’t be allowed unless there is a real threat like in war
My heart goes out to all the shooting victims and their families. I cant even (and dont want) to began to imagine what and how they are feeling right now.
I think guns are vile. A lot of people who have guns for protection end up having them used against them. If you want protection get a home security system and some mace. And anyone who says that they are needed for hunting, i think bambi and friends would disagree.
Mass shootings are not stopped by gun control. New York City has the STRICTEST gun control laws in the entire country, except for Washington DC (and no private citizen can legally carry in either city) and there are still plenty of shootings. Switzerland, on the other hand, issues a firearm to every adult citizen and trains people how to use them. It has one of the lowest, in fact I believe it IS the lowest, rate of gun crime in world. Few towns in the US have adopted this policy. When the sheriff of one such town that has was asked about crime, though, his response was “What crime?” No criminal in their right mind is going to attack someone who is armed. There is a reason you will never see the headline “Mass Shooting at GUN SHOW!” Most mass shootings happen in places that refuse to allow concealed carry (office buildings, schools, that movie theater in Aurora) so armed citizens who FOLLOW THE LEGAL RESTRICTIONS can’t shoot back. Furthermore, some of those injuries in NYC may have been caused by police officers, who fired into a crowd about 14 times. Are you really saying that we can rely on them? I have better accuracy. MY right to MY gun (and my daddy’s right to his) does not affect anyone else. DO NOT compare it to theft, which is always harms someone. The statistics also go against gun control. There are very few accidental gun deaths every year, and pretty much ALL of them could be prevented by teaching FIREARM SAFETY. There are no accidents, only negligence. Don’t make firearms illegal, show people how to use them responsibly, and encourage people to practice. As far as outlawing firearms, I would like to point out that ALL of the following things are harmful, potentially lethal, and illegal:
Alcohol to anyone under 21
Marijuana
Heroin
Cocaine
Bombs
People still use them. Some directly harm other people (bombing buildings, drunk driving). Please, go ahead and tell me more about how CRIMINALS FOLLOW LAWS. When one of the custom made, $30,000 shotguns competitive trap shooters use ends up killing someone, we’ll talk. I’m sure plenty of people of people will call me crazy, say I have no right to talk (my uncle lives in Aurora, CO, I have more right than you), and that I’m some stupid, backward redneck clinging to my guns. I hope I never have to use them. Chances are I won’t. It’s still better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. Our right to bear arms is necessary in order to maintain a free country (just ask people who try to create nations without freedom, like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Kim Jong il, ect…). It’s in the Bill of Rights to avoid crime, and more importantly oppression. You can take my guns just as soon as you take my Daddy’s and my uncle’s. Until then, I agree with Ben Franklin, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Amen!!
Artemis95, you literally beat me to what I was going to say. I’m the daughter of a police officier so yes I know how to use a gun properly. And the only reason I don’t own one yet is because I’m not 21 yet.
Gosh that’s so sad. So many senseless crimes.
NYC has the harshest gun control laws in the US, so clearly it’s not fool proof. Yes training is too lack here, but I think we should require more training (hey we could employ some people too!) but what you are saying is since a few crazies used something to harm people no one should have it; one lady killed someone with a coffee mug shall we ban them? how many of these mass shooting happened with short barreled handguns commonly bought for self protection?
This is very upsetting. That’s all I have to say. :,(