With the recent Orlando nightclub gunfire killing 49 people, and the upcoming election, gun control and preventing mass shootings are a hot topic in our country.

Sadly, mass shootings are nothing new. Our country has seen deadly gunfire way to many times within the past few years. In 2007, 32 people were shot and killed at the Virginia Tech campus. In 2012, 12 lives were taken at a Colorado movie theater. Later in 2012, 27 lives were lost at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. Recently in 2015, 14 people were killed in San Bernardino, California. All these shootings have made major news, but there are many more mass shootings that do not receive national headlines. According to the FBI, a mass killing has four or more victims, not including the shooter. Mass shootings in the United States have been occurring about every two weeks since 2006. That is terrifying.

What can we do to prevent mass shootings? It is easy to say, “there needs to be stricter gun control” or “restrict the purchase of assault weapons”. However, these “easy” fixes are not simple tasks and have huge drawbacks. Those who are law-abiding citizens and are responsible enough to own guns would lose their rights under the Second Amendment. Additionally, guns have already been purchased so if someone really wants to have their hands on a gun, there’s a good chance they can find one. While I believe it should be more difficult for people to buy a gun, the right should not be taken away completely. Some believe there should be mandatory background checks for those trying to purchase a gun. This would cancel out the chance of criminals purchasing guns, but would not stop those who are mentally unstable from buying a gun.

Maybe instead of preventing the purchasing of assault weapons, we could equip people to defend themselves. The Second Amendment gives us the right to be prepared for violence and have means to defend against it. It is however important to note that guns have immensely changed from when the Second Amendment was written. Also, many citizens, such as children are unable to defend themselves. You may say that we can protect children with security officers in schools, but this could interfere with the learning environment. Some even want teachers and other administrators to be armed to protect themselves and students. This could place teachers in an unwanted position in which they are not suited for and could alarm younger children to be afraid.

So far there has been no viable answer to preventing mass shootings. Others pose rooting out violence in our society may decease mass shootings. The problem here is our culture endorses violence through music, television, video games, movies, sports, etc. We also glorify mass murderers through stories in the media. We could reduce the news media covering mass shootings, but then this could put people in greater risk due to the lack of knowledge. We could restrict violence in video games and on television, but this limits artists’ freedom of expression.

Preventing mass shootings is not something that can be done overnight, nor is there a solution that will make everyone happy. There is a need for something to be done because it is scary knowing how often this does occur. But how do we put an end to this? I’m not sure. We could make it harder to buy guns, even outlaw it, but we cannot do this without giving our government extreme control over cherished freedoms. We could train and prepare people to defend themselves but an increase of firearms and armed security in public places could drastically change our society. We could eliminate violence in our media but this would change our American culture by limiting what we can say and do.

I’m not sure on how to prevent mass shootings. While no solution is going to completely prevent these tragic occurrences, I believe there has to be a way to lower the number of them. With the recent Orlando shooting and upcoming election, views on gun control have been a hot topic. Donald Trump believes mass shootings are due to a huge mental health problem, but does not want to put limits on guns because of our Second Amendment rights. Hillary Clinton has pushed for a ban on assault weapons and enacting stronger background checks. Both have valid arguments.

Since I was unsure on my opinion on gun control, I decided to ask my Facebook friends and Twitter followers whether or not they thought stricter gun laws and control would prevent mass shootings. Surprisingly, the majority did not think stricter control would prevent this. I had many valid and interesting points brought to my attention, some I would have never considered. Gun control is much more than just whether we should ban weapons or not. The numerous responses I received held a lot of discussion rather than people just stating yes or no. This proves that there are discussions happening pertaining to gun control and preventing mass shootings. We could debate forever on the best possible solution, but we would never find one.

Unfortunately, nothing is every going to prevent mass shootings. Those who have criminal backgrounds or are mentally unstable will still find a gun if they want one. I have no clue how to prevent these tragedies from happening, but I do know something has to be done. My point is, mass shootings cannot be occurring every two weeks. No matter what our country decides to do about this problem, not everyone is going to be happy. Those who abide by the law, are still gong to follow the rules. Those who want to break the law are still going to. However, it should not be easy for anyone to purchase a gun, walk into a nightclub, and take the lives of almost 50 people. Better background checks and psychological exams before having the ability to buy a gun seems like a great start to me. While I do not want to see the rights taken away from law abiding citizens, I also do not want to see lives taken away due to mass shootings.

There is a need for more discussion and deliberation on how we’re going to prevent mass shootings. Something has to be done. I do not have an answer for what we should do, I wish I did.