If you have been on any social media website at all in the past few weeks, you know there has been a massive controversy among people who are pro-gun control and anti-gun control.

Being from the predominantly conservative state of Alabama, my timeline is full of people who can’t even fathom the fact that people want to take away their guns.But here in lies the problem, no one wants to take away your hunting rifle and keep you from enjoying your Saturday morning deer and squirrel hunting.

Pro-gun control is NOT anti-gun. So many people that defend the second amendment also want to live in a safer America where it is much more difficult for the mentally unstable to obtain a gun. Not everything can be prevented, but some can.

If those who claim to be “responsible gun owners” would listen, they would realize that they wouldn’t even be affected by stricter gun laws. If someone is as responsible and mentally stable as they say they are, then why would one even be worried in the first place?

In Japan, you have to not only pass a written exam, but you have to pass a thorough background check, a mental stability test, and a drug test. And why shouldn’t you have to go through all of that?

Personally, I think one who claims to be a responsible gun owner could pass these tests without a problem. No one will take your gun if you are a non-criminal who is mentally stable and not on drugs.

Japan has also outlawed the private sales of guns so people can’t avoid going through the gun-owning process. One would think this is common sense, but it is totally legal in America!

So, even though it is illegal to have a gun without a license, these criminals can legally buy a gun and posses it as long as they don’t get caught. So in summary, law-abiding citizens can sell guns to lawbreakers without knowing it.

If just private gun sales in themselves were outlawed, many criminals who can’t even pass a simple background test would have a harder time obtaining a gun in the first place.

We are all very aware of the fact that criminals don’t follow laws by definition, but making it much harder to break the laws can prevent a lot of fatalities; every life saved counts.

Just so anyone reading this can know what and who I am addressing, let me provide a couple of anti-gun control posts that I have come across on Facebook.

This political cartoon insinuates that stricter gun laws just means that the government would totally disarm America. In reality, law-abiding citizens WOULD keep their guns. For those who believe the conspiracy that this will only lead to a gun ban, your fears are just that, a conspiracy; completely hypothetical. Meanwhile, People are actually dying from the government not taking gun control (again, not gun ban) seriously.

I won't go too into detail about this one. Basically, this shows how people who believe gun-control is taking away people's guns aren't listening to what the other side has to say. Something that gives people the ability to kill another human being should not be almost as easily accessible as a carton of cigarettes.

All we want is a safer American. No one wants the right to defend themselves taken away. We know we don't live in a world that is immune to bad things happening, but we can take steps to try and prevent them from happening before it's too late.