There's been a long debate over how much Americans should embrace the Second Amendment. According to this site, there have been 187 school shootings in America since 2013. Here's a longer, yet not fully updated list that records school shootings from 1996 to 2012. However, school shootings aren't the only tragedy that needs to be looked at.
Christina Grimmie died June 10, 2016 after being shot while signing autographs in Orlando, according to cnn.com. She was touring with the band Before You Exit. CNN states, "A man armed with two guns walked up to the 22-year-old singer as she was signing autographs late Friday night and opened fire, Orlando police spokeswoman Wanda Ford said." The man then shot himself while scuffling with Grimmie's brother, who intervened after his sister was shot.
Clearly there was an issue with security here, because at most concerts, outside food and drink are prohibited, so how did he manage to get two guns through?
Grimmie's death can be compared to Selena Quintanilla's death in 1995. Her fan club and boutique manager, Yolanda Saldivar, shot Selena in the back after being accused of embezzling money from the singer's fan club. Selena died from blood loss and cardiac arrest.
How were people able to get a gun so easily to kill these young singers? Well, according to this site, "the process of obtaining a gun can sometimes be difficult and confusing, but with the right information, one can pass through the process with very little difficulty."
The most important thing to do before allowing someone to buy a gun is probably to give him or her a background check. Gunlaws.com describes background checks as "non-intrusive, and [they] are aimed solely at determining whether or not you are prohibited from purchasing guns under federal law because you fall into one of many categories." The gist of this is that as long as someone has no federal record, he or she could very easily attain a gun. This, of course, does not include examples like a teenager stealing a gun from his or her father's safe. However, there are other scenarios where someone could obtain a gun without even applying for one.
This is where the system is wrong. Just because someone has no federal record does not mean he or she is equipped to own a gun. Most of the time, psychological disorders are not included in background checks. What if someone has severe depression and wants to buy the gun to shoot him or herself? What is someone is schizophrenic and his or her hallucinations get to be too much one day, causing the person to go off on a shooting spree? Laws may not be able to prohibit everyone with a mental illness from owning a gun, because that's discrimination, but this should be included in the background check for safety precautions.
At the end of the day, guns don't kill people; people do. This is why it's crucial that intense background checks and even follow-ups should be done in order to make sure a gun is going into secure, trustworthy hands.
How many people need to be hurt or killed before the law changes?
