Following the wake of the tragic mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 innocent people lost their lives, many students and millions of Americans have taken to social media and news outlets to proclaim their support for increased regulations of guns, as well as criticism of America’s world famous gun culture. While the vast majority of these people mean well, they get one thing wrong: the effectiveness of gun control.

There’s a reason mass shootings never happen at gun shows, gun stores and police stations and always happen in schools, theatres, and offices: some of these places are filled with good guys with guns while the others are filled with unarmed civilians. Murderers will always go where they face the least resistance while avoiding the places where they know they will fail and end up getting shot themselves. Turning the entire country into a gun-free zone is only going to create more sitting ducks and more bloodshed.

Criminals do not follow the law. The only people who will actually follow the new gun laws and regulations are the good samaritians of this country. If guns become more regulated and harder to get, a demand for guns will appear in black market, and just south of the border lies a developing country riddled with powerful cartels and organized crime who are more than eager to supply every need in the American black market. These soon-to-be mass shooters will always find a way to get their hands on AR-15's and AK-47's, just as people today are able to get their hands on hardcore, illegal drugs, and people in the 1920's got their hands on alcohol.

Many advocates of gun control point to the very strict gun laws of Australia and Britain. The only problem is, these actions haven't had much of an effect on the crime rates of their respective countries. A Crime Prevention Research Center study found that after the Britain's extrmem gun laws was implemented homicide rates and firearm homicide rates increased afterwards, and it only declined after Britain built up its police force. A 2008 study by the University of Melbourne concluded that Australia's gun buyback, where people were encouraged to give up their guns and over 600,000 guns were turned in, that "there is little evidence to suggest that [the National Firearms Agreement] had any significant effects on firearm homicides and suicides. In addition, there also does not appear to be any substitution effects – that reduced access to firearms may have led those bent on committing homicide or suicide to use alternative methods."

No solution is perfect of course, however there is one which would prove highly effective: armed teachers. Imagine if one teacher at Sandy Hook or Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had been well-trained and well-armed and managed to fight back and kill, or at least injure the shooter. Imagine how many lives would have been saved. Of course, basic gun control such as background checks and prevention of sales to the mentally ill should be in place, however, instead of giving in to knee-jerk reactions and appeals to emotions, we need to sit down, think things through, and look at all the facts. After this is done, one thing should be clear: gun control doesn't work.