After yet another mass shooting, gun control has been a hot topic and for good reason. The most recent being at Umpqua community college in Roseburg, Oregon. Umpqua brings the USA to its 294th shooting in 274 days, meaning there has been at least one shooting where at least four people are killed every single day this year. (You can get a comprehensive calendar of every mass shooting from 2013-2015 here.)

While Charleston, Isla Vista, Virginia, and now Roseburg have become the most recent and high-profile cases, there are hundreds of cases that we hear nothing about every single day. Four shot dead in yet another bloody Sunday, Pedestrian shoots motorist for making nearby U-turn, and Artist shot, killed while painting anti-violence mural just to name a few.

The question is, whose to blame? The U.S. Concealed Carry Association says, don't blame the gun, blame the people. And while it is true that guns do not shoot themselves, why are we allowing people to purchase guns if they aren't responsible enough to handle them? Where are the background checks? Limitations on how many guns and what kind of guns one can own?

Did you know, under federal law, you are legally allowed to purchase a flamethrower? 40/50 states have no laws against owning it, and in most restricted states like California, unlicensed possession is only a misdemeanor. Have you ever heard of a mini gun? The name is pretty deceiving, it can fire 2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute. While these guns are pretty rare, who needs to shoot 166 bullets per second? You are also allowed to have a black powder cannon and grenade launchers (Read more here) ... And while these aren't the weapons we see, it's mostly pistols, rifles, shotguns, and revolvers, the point is that we do not need all these weapons. Furthermore, this survey conducted on a Hand Gun Forum shows that a majority of the owners have from 1001-5000 rounds and for what?

The argument against more gun control always seems to be, "well it's my second amendment right." Is it though? The second amendment 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.

The idea of a well regulated civilian militias is not relevant anymore and neither is the second amendment. These amendments were written in the formation of America, we are a fully developed country now. While I firmly believe the constitution is a great outline for what we should maintain in terms of our rights, if you wanted to follow the constitution directly, the purpose of "the right to bear Arms" is to form regulated militias that protect the security of democracy and freedom. If you want to maintain the beliefs of the original four fathers that founded this nation, women wouldn't be able to vote and slavery would still be around and if that sounds ideal to you, well then you just aren't my kind of person.

I am not saying that we should take away the gun(s) of every American citizen, I am saying that we need to ensure the security of our nation by making them harder for the wrong person to obtain and limiting how many guns or how much ammunition one can posses. I am not claiming to be a gun expert, I've only ever held a gun at a gun range, where I was trained and in a controlled setting. But anyone can see the harm this basically unregulated privilege has caused. Obama said it best when he said:

Earlier this year, I answered a question in an interview by saying, “The United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun-safety laws — even in the face of repeated mass killings.” And later that day, there was a mass shooting at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana. That day! Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this. (Read more here)

And what really stuck with me is the word "numb." Our culture has become completely desensitized to violence. We value that almost anybody can posses a gun more than the thousands of innocent people who didn't have to die this year. Thousands of families wouldn't have to grieve over the loss of their loved one. Nobody thought it would happen in Charleston, Isla Vista, or Roseburg, but it did. And every single time it does, we say "wow that's so sad", and we move on to the next day for it to happen over and over and over again without doing anything about it.

Many argue that if more people were armed, it would be easier to stop a gunman. The problem with that logic is, it doesn't solve the problem for the long-term, just each individual scenario. It doesn't prevent anything or eliminate the potential threat. All this does is kill off or scare off the gunman. Wouldn't it be more proactive to make sure that this individual doesn't get a gun in the first place with proper background checks, waiting periods, and limits on ammunition? Killing off the bad people in the world doesn't solve the problem. There will always be someone to take his/her place, it will be a continuing cycle of unnecessary murder until we put forth stricter laws for gun control reform.

America is an incredible country with an immense amount of opportunity and history. People come from all over the world to come to our melting pot to make a better life for themselves and their family. Unfortunately, so many American lives are lost to a hand on a trigger. Their time to seize their opportunities is cut short, and I think it's time to change that.