Gun control: America needs stricter laws, not more bans
October 22, 2015
Recently, I had the eye-opening experience of being able to participate in a debate over gun control in America. With the most recent and tragic shooting in Roseburg being so close to home, the gun control conversation has been sparked yet again.
This begs the question … why did the conversation ever stop? Haven’t we learned from the countless shootings that have already stained our history? After so many innocent lives have been lost? Why does this conversation always disappear behind other hot topics after a few weeks?
I was ready for some serious conversations on practical ways to go about making this necessary change. I guess my assumption on the level of intellect my fellow peers possessed was too generous.
Not only could I hardly believe it when one of them informed me that you were as bad as the person attacking you if you were to shoot them with a gun in self defense, but I was also stunned by the tremendous lack of an open mind. Not one of them stopped to seriously consider that people who live with guns feel safe because of the neighborhood they may live in. Not everyone can live in a nice, safe, suburban neighborhood and some students at Cleveland even live in some pretty crime-ridden areas.
I’d like to clarify: Yes, I am a supporter of the installation of some serious gun control laws. I am not, however, a supporter of banning guns altogether. Whatever happened to the idea of being able to use a gun responsibly?
My family is a hunting family. This is not something that I like to publicly tell people very often because it’s not always accepted by my fellow peers, but my family does hunt. We use our guns responsibly. They remain locked and stored at all times that we are not out on a hunting trip. We acknowledge the power and danger a gun holds. We follow the rules and we use them for one purpose and one purpose only: to feed ourselves in a way that does not promote factory farming.
Instead of taking away the guns from responsible owners, how about we work to add some gun laws that will make a difference? Through reading several articles I’ve come up with a brainstorm of brilliant ideas.
You know how on the updated iPhones, you can use your fingerprint to access your phone? Well, what about adding that new innovation to guns? Also, how about we add a law to make it so that you have to undergo classes on the proper use of a gun for all different types of situations? We could additionally add psychological tests and other tests related to proper gun use in order to get a license to own a gun. Then, let’s have people who own guns be required to renew their license and retake those tests periodically!
There’re plenty more ideas out there on ways to make gun control better in America. I don’t want to turn on my TV and see pictures of people being terrorized by someone who should never have gotten a hold of a gun in the first place.
Like President Obama said, someone who is completely sane in the mind does not go and kill people. That’s not how this works. I hope to God that America wakes up already, because this is not a problem that is going to fix itself. Everyone needs to open their mind and try to see this issue from all different perspectives. Let’s also try not to laugh at the fact that some of us don’t live in those fairy tale suburban neighborhoods, but instead live in a high crime area where a gun helps make us feel safe.
