A big topic of debate today is gun control and regulation. Instantly, so many of you are expecting me to bash the ownership of guns and call out for a law banning such ownership, well stop assuming and keep reading.

Federal law on gun ownership today already regulates gun ownership, but only to some degree. This includes placing restrictions on the ownership of certain types of firearms. The National Firearms Act (NFA), for instance, places restrictions on the sale or possession of short-barreled shotguns, machine guns, and silencers. I understand that people get defensive when others start discussing gun control, because they don’t want their rights to be violated. They don’t want their freedom to be lessened in anyway and I understand that. Safety, especially in today’s times, is imperative to us all and constantly on our minds. In our daily routine, we have our eyes open and our muscles ready, because we need to be ready for anything. Who knows what horrifying thing will happen next and where? I get it, I really do.

However, we need to start discussing gun control. Stop hearing gun control and thinking that means that we want to take away your guns, we don’t. Not unless you are mentally ill or have some past criminal record that would be concerning. That’s what gun control is guys, not taking away everyone’s guns, but limiting those who get them, so it helps everyone. It seems almost crazy to me that those who own guns get defensive when gun control comes up. They want their weapons for hunting and also for safety, so shouldn’t you understand why gun control is so essential to a safer world?

This brings me to our current situation. Gun violence is a huge part of our society. Recently, many were injured and killed by a shooter in New York city. Before that, there was a shooting in Orlando at the Pulse night club, which lead to President Obama to call on Congress to enact/ renew a law prohibiting the sale and possession of assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. On June 12, the use of an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle killed 49 people in that night club.

Now, this topic needs discussion and it’s a time sensitive issue. With each passing minute not moving towards a more controlled gun law, the risk of another shooting, more dead rises as well. Currently, a bill titled “Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act,” or SHARE Act, advanced to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The main purpose of the bill is to expand access to public land for, hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting, a provision added called "The Hearing Protection Act" would also reduce the current federal restrictions on purchasing firearm silencers, or suppressors. The idea of this act passing should scare you. Those proposing this bill argue that it would be better for those recreational hunters as it would lessen the effect the sound of their guns has on their hearing. Well, in my opinion hunting is a hobby and if passing this act would increase casualties in a mass shooting than I am against it. And the idea that people would prefer hunting with more comfort than living their lives without more fear, then I no longer understand the world. Lessening restrictions for obtaining suppressors and silencers would make locating the source of gunfire in an emergency situation more difficult, thus creating a more dangerous situation and resulting in more casualties.

Let’s just look at the recent shooting in Las Vegas. A perfect example of why silencers create a deadlier scenario. Many who were lucky enough to survive the attack, said the initial sound resembled fireworks and no one understood that a gun was being shot until bodies started falling. This shooter killed at least 59 people and injured over 500 more. On October 1, 2017, barely over a year after the Orlando shooting, a man identified as Stephen Craig Paddock opened fire on an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas. Shooting from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, Paddock killed at least 59 people and wounded more than 500 others. An article on this horrible attack said, “Among the at least 23 firearms found in Paddock’s room were legally-purchased, semi-automatic AR-15 rifles which had been fitted with commercially-available accessories known as “bump-stocks,” which allow semi-automatic rifles to be fired in fully-automatic mode of up to nine rounds per second. Under a law enacted in 2010, bump-stocks are treated as legal, after-market accessories.” Had the suppressor not been in the incident, the victims would have been aware of the situation faster and the result could have been less dead and/or injured.

However, there are good steps being taken towards a safer world. There are a few acts in process that will lessen the dangers of guns. Less than a week after the Las Vegas shooting, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced the “Automatic Gunfire Protection Act". This would ban the sale and possession of bump stocks (used by the Las Vegas shooter) and other devices that essentially turn a semiautomatic weapon to fire in fully-automatic mode. Even more recently, another act in process is called “The Background Check Completion Act”. This act would close the loophole currently found in gun sales. Before this act, after 72 hours if a background check is not completed, then the gun sale will proceed even if the gun buyer is not legally allowed to purchase a gun. Lastly, “The Background Check Completion Act” would require that a background check be fully completed before any gun buyer who purchases a gun from a federally-licensed firearms dealer (FFL) can take possession of the gun.

There are so many horrors to be found in the media and the news. Everything seems to be happening all at once, and we only seem to be informed of the bad and the scary. This isn’t all horrible, because knowing the situation can allow us to change and make better decisions. Gun owners, stop halting the conversation the instant you hear ‘gun control’, because it doesn’t mean what you think it means. We don’t want to take away your guns, it’s part of your right, but it’s time to start looking at the world as a product of our actions. You can’t just blame foreigners and immigrants for our problems and then go back home and allow gun control to become less and less a part of our lives. Let’s not forget that the Las Vegas shooter was a white male, a fact that is only interesting to media apparently when the attacker is an immigrant. Stop making gun control an attack on lawful citizens and realize that the world needs us to start doing things and stop being defensive. Otherwise, the horrors are going only going to continue, increasing in speed and strength.