Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook Elementary. Pulse Nightclub. The top three deadliest mass shootings in United States history have happened in the past nine years. According to CNN “nearly a third of the world’s mass shootings took place in the U.S.” The United States only has 5% of the world’s population yet approx. 31% of all public mass shootings occurs here. It coincides with the fact that Americans own more guns than citizens of any other country. These facts should bring into question if a change is needed to protect those that live in this country. Many people oppose gun control saying that it violates the Second Amendment and our right to keep and bear Arms. But what needs to be taken into account is the safety of those around us, how different society is from when the Constitution was written, and that gun control does not take away very single gun but would provide more safety measures and precautions. If obtaining a gun was as regulated and intense as obtaining an abortion, I am willing to bet that gun purchases would go down tremendously.
On June 12, 2016, Pulse, a gay nightclub and bar, suffered the deadliest mass shooting in U.S history and the deadliest incident of violence against the LGBTQ+ community. The perpetrator was able to purchase a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automated rifle, a weapon “designed to meet U.S military requirements for a small, quiet combat rifle for use in close quarters,” according to ABC News. The use for weapons like this in the day-to-day American’s hands is unnecessary. Ideally, if one wanted to buy a gun, they should have to go through a thorough background check, a mental health record review, and a waiting period, especially for semi-automatic weapons. Although these do not have the capabilities of a fully automatic assault rifle (you must pull the trigger separately to fire another round), they are still considered a toned-down version of a military machine gun.
A few days prior, on June 10, 2016, singer Christina Grimmie was fatally wounded by multiple gunshot wounds from an obsessed fan at her meet-and-greet in Orlando, Florida. The perpetrator had a history of violence with some involving the need for police. It should have been incredibly difficult for a person with this background to attempt to purchase a gun, specifically due to his history of violence. This goes back to mental health checks. While this precaution may not have prevented this tragedy, it could prevent more like this from happening.
In order to prevent more mass shootings and senseless murders, there needs to be a reform in the gun laws. President Obama’s 2015 Executive Actions on Gun Control were not meant to take the guns away from American’s, as it is a Constitutional right for us to bear arms. Instead, he wants to make it so that those who can legally obtain guns can do so and those who pose as a risk cannot. This involves making sure that businesses that sell guns have a federal license and do background checks for everyone, more research and communication between federal and state level authorities on the criminal history of those who want to buy guns, and mental health checks. In his past gun proposal, he wanted to place a ban on all military-style assault and semi-automated rifles. While I am personally in favor of this (that type of weapon in the hands of the everyday civilian is completely unnecessary and puts a lot of people at risk due to the amount of ammo that can be fired in a short period of time), putting a complete ban on it would only reduce ownership by a small portion. People would still able to obtain guns of that caliber illegally or can avoid turning them over if already owned.
The United States should take a look at countries like Germany where anyone under the age of 25 has to pass a psychiatric evaluation or in Italy where you must have a legit reason to have a firearm and pass both a background check and a mental health evaluation. There is a lot that needs to be done in order to prevent tragedies like these from happening again, but the first step is Congress coming together and actually agreeing on a plan to make it happen. Hopefully, they will make the right move because there have been so many mass shootings that nowhere feels safe.
