In the midst of tragedy people tend to look for a villain, a victim and a hero. In the past few years, America has faced several tragedies in which guns were identified as the villain. There is no tragedy in which a gun can actually be a villain. A gun is a weapon, however, a gun is only as dangerous as the person holding it.

Gun control only prevents the people who use guns the correct and appropriate ways from having them. If a person wants to commit a crime, having a law that prevents people from owning guns is not going to stand in their way.

In the recent shooting at Pulse in Orlando, one of the main reasons the shooter was able to take down so many people was because there was no one else armed in the club to help take down the shooter. The club was a designated "gun free zone." Had one person besides the shooter had a firearm the entire outcome of the tragedy could have been different.

Creating laws that prevent people from owning guns can only create more and more opportunities for criminals to attack. How do we as a country defend ourselves? Our military has what seems like endless amounts of different weapons. Many of these weapons are types of guns and rifles. Could you imagine sending our soldiers to defend our country without any weapons? The right to bear arms has been a hot topic over the past several years. Does it truly mean people should be able to purchase and carry a weapon freely? Or was it meant in regards to hunting and survival at the time the amendment was made? The second amendment does not say that we as United States Citizens have the right to bear arms in recreational instances. It states, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” From the beginning of time, people who had means to defend themselves had power and freedom in their own lives. If you take away the means of self-defense you are setting people up for failure of freedom.

Most mass shootings occur in places that are designated gun free zones, and there have been a few instances where a mass shooting was prevented by an armed civilian who was armed and able to take out the shooter. Creating laws that prevent people from their right to bear arms would be a major mistake for our country. Taking away the right to bear arms would create a huge target on every person who abided by the law. People have the right to defend themselves, we should not be working to take this right away. Guns are not the reason mass shootings can occur. A gun is only as dangerous as the person armed. A lack of defense would only add to the number of tragedies caused by people who use guns the wrong way. A gun in the hands of a criminal is way more powerful if the person they intend to shoot is knowingly unarmed.