The gun control debate in America has been an ongoing conversation since the very founding of this great nation. It receives a new spark every time there is an instance of gun violence or a mass school shooting hitting the news. There are two arguments that highlight a majority of views for more gun control. People either want more laws in place or to totally take guns away. They believe if there's more gun control it'll decrease the number of school shootings but that's not going to stop it from happening.

I believe the issue of stopping gun violence is so much more than the number of laws we create for gun control or how many guns someone chooses to own. We can still support our second amendment rights and create better tactics to prevent another horrible incident from happening.

After the Santa Fe school shooting, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the tragic incident because it happened in one of the most pro-gun states in the country. Arguments were being made left and right about how there should have been more laws in place and that incident would not have happened. There are so many loopholes the Santa Fe shooter jumped through just to unleash violence. One more law wouldn't have stopped it from happening, it would have just created another loophole for him to jump through.

Some examples of this are: it's illegal to bring a firearm onto school grounds, it's illegal to saw the barrel off a shotgun, it's illegal for a 17-year-old to possess certain guns, it's illegal to carry without a permit in Texas, and it's illegal to shoot and kill people. This shows that someone with the intentions to cause mass destruction is going to carry out their plan by whatever means necessary. As a result of a serious lack of mental health resources in this country, many issues go undetected until a serious incident like a mass shooting has happened.

I believe the lack of mental health resources and services allows a lot of serious mental health conditions to go undetected for long periods of time. For some people, we only find out what's going on through their head after they do something drastic whether it's a mass shooting or committing suicide. When someone suffers from mental illness, with the way we currently treat people with these type of issues they aren't going to willingly bring it up to anyone even if it is a medical professional.

We need to start routinely screening people for mental illnesses from the time they are young kids all the way throughout their lives just like we do with physical illnesses. By catching the mental illnesses earlier in time, we can understand the turmoil that is happening inside these people's heads and effectively be able to treat them and hopefully prevent them from acting out in those violent ways. Instead of fighting about gun laws, we need to advocate for better mental health care resources in our country.

Stopping gun violence can be something prevented in the way we treat others. It's a lot less of a gun issue, and more of a heart issue. We don't seem to have a high regard for other people's feelings anymore or even a respect for human life. This attitude is becoming very normalized in recent generations and that's clearly shown in the very sharp increase in mass shootings in schools and other public places. I blame the increasing violence shown in mainstream media and hateful words being spewed on our social media pages.

These things weren't present in the past and the numbers are reflecting that. It's becoming normalized in young, developing brains and it shows negative actions as a way to solve pain and hurt. Even if we went as far as to take guns away, it would just come back as violent actions against others via other types of weapons.

America doesn't need more gun control. One more law isn't going to stop them from shooting up our schools. Don't you dare take away the second amendment freedom given to citizens by our nation's founders. Advocate for positive changes in our country by asking for better mental health initiatives and asking for less hateful words on social media. I believe it would be a powerful thing for this nation if we started to do those things.