Don't get me wrong. I adore action movies and can't get enough of the hero coming in to save the day with guns blazing. There's a lot of satisfaction that comes from seeing bad guys getting mowed down like grass on a summer's day.
That's on the screen though, where there's a clear separation between fiction and reality.
If you were to put me anywhere near a real gun, I can guarantee that it wouldn't be long before I become a sweating, shaking mess.
In reality, I am terrified of guns.
This doesn't come from any bad experiences with guns on my part. I've never even handled a gun before, and I neither desire to nor hope that I will ever need to. In fact, I actually don't have any personal reasons to be afraid of guns, but when it comes to the statistics, it's just plain logical.
In 2015 alone, there were 372 mass shootings and 64 school shootings in America. Overall, around 13,286 people died with more than double that amount sustaining injuries as a direct result of gun violence.
And on Feb. 26, 2016, an In-N-Out Burger employee was fatally shot a mere seven minutes from where I live.
Whether you're for guns rights or gun control, there's no denying the fact that a gun is a weapon which means it has three uses in most scenarios: to intimidate, to harm, and to kill. These scenarios include self-defense and hunting, which does show that guns can be and are necessary, even beneficial. However, this shouldn't extend to the point where guns are conveniently accessed and abused on a daily basis. But in America, that's exactly what's been happening for years.
What makes guns one of the most dangerous weapons out there is that they're effective and easy to use. It doesn't take much to pull a trigger, but the result can literally cost lives.
This doesn't mean that America needs to ban guns — that would be too extreme. But it does mean that something needs to be done about gun violence, whether it's more rules or more restrictions. If it doesn't happen soon, it's only a matter of time before we're caught in the crossfire.
