Our country was founded upon war. It was conceived through violence and it survived at the hand of a gun. It’s in our blood. It’s “who we are” as Americans. Our identity as a nation was carved on the battle fields of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill as average Americans fought tooth and nail to win the sovereignty and liberty they were eventually rewarded with. And at a time when nationalism was high and the most dangerous handheld weapon was a musket that took approximately twenty seconds to load and fire each time, the second amendment seemed pragmatic and practical. The right to bear arms and freedom were synonymous. Without one we cannot have the other, to have one we require both. However, time is relentless, continuous, never stationary— and as the country progressed, expanding Westward, developing technology, refining its own domestic economy, the second Amendment, a law initially designated towards the arming of militants with muskets, has remained the same. How would the founding Fathers have predicted such a cataclysmic change? They couldn’t have. They couldn’t have foreseen the country to develop tanks and nuclear technology. They couldn’t have foreseen an average American wielding a semi-automatic rifle in his or her household and they could not have written a second Amendment knowing all that was to come in the future and all that one simple amendment would have to blanket.

The Constitution of the United States of America has lived to ensure and protect the rights of every human being. Though we cringe at the thought of change, of slightly altering a Bill of Rights that by the day leaves Americans more and more vulnerable to gun violence. We cower at organizations like the National Rifle Association that claim to represent the responsible, safe gun owners that do, indeed, exist in this country. Nonetheless, all these organizations do is morph and twist the words of victims, politicians, and the media in order to divert attention away from the actual gun violence and towards thoughts like bringing more guns into society. It’s unrealistic and radical to assume that the second amendment could and should be completely dissolved— our country was founded upon those principles of defending one’s livelihood and family and they will always be apart of our identity. But the fact of the matter is we miss 100 percent of the shots we don’t take. And this can no longer be a scapegoat every time an innocent human being loses his or her life. Since 2001, there have been 403,116 more gun related deaths than there have been terrorist-related deaths. We’re more of a threat to ourselves than to terrorist organizations whose mission is largely to kill Americans. That isn’t a coincidence; the United States government has established proper means of security to nullify terrorist threats in order to ensure our country’s safety, to ensure that each American is given the proper chance to prosper and thrive in this country, to ensure that the United States of America continues to grow and develop. The same must be done to both rescue the 30,000 Americans that will die as a result of gun violence this year and to properly remember those who have already lost their lives.

There are scores of responsible gun owners in this country who agree that action over gun violence must be taken. 77 percent of NRA members favor a waiting period for purchase of a handgun. 69 percent also support background checks on private gun sales, including gun shows. 94 percent of police chiefs favor requiring a background check for all handgun sales. The masses agree that history should no longer have to repeat itself and that we can no longer quietly endorse this mass slaughtering by refusing to act. Since taking office, President Obama has had to deliver 16 statements over gun violence. 16 times he has had to face the public and attempt to console the country after yet another American tragedy. The reporting has become routine. Responses have become routine. After a few moments of silence and a well-worded eulogy we all go back to our day-to-day lives while there are more families whose lives change forever. Gun reform is no longer an issue that can be debated then forgotten about. It deserves the attention it needs and each death can no longer float away in vain. As President Obama stated in his public address after the October first Oregon shooting, “When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer... we have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives. So the notion that gun violence is somehow different... doesn’t make sense". Action like gun reform is common sense. When problems arise, they get solved. We do not let them sit and fester and worsen by the day.

The Founding Father’s traveled to the Constitutional Convention via horseback. The Benz Patent Motor Car, the world’s first ever automobile, wouldn’t even be invented for another 92 years in 1879. Things such as speed limits, drunk driving laws, and stop lights couldn’t have possibly been enacted at the time the Constitution was written because they didn’t even know cars were going to exist. These laws were made later on, when Americans saw the dangers of driving too fast or driving drunk and acknowledged that something must be done to ensure the public’s safety. Gun reform is no different. The first semi-automatic rifle wasn't even invented until 1885. Reform spawns from change, and a lack of action symbolizes an apathy towards moving forward into the future. Within this lies an apathy towards saving American lives. This apathy can no longer exist. The Second Amendment can no longer be a scapegoat or an excuse for the 30,000 annual American lives lost as a result of gun violence. It isn’t a matter of infringing on peoples’ rights, it’s a matter of preserving their lives, and that preservation begins when we accept the inevitability of change and look toward the future without making the same mistakes of the past. That preservation begins when we acknowledge the Constitution as a living document that can be mended. That preservation must begin now.