Gun Violence: The Importance Of Gun Control

In a nation of pioneers and settlers, where we capitalize upon a bear wielding a firearm to represent “our right to bear arms” there has come to be quite a bit of bloodshed because of that right. Fear has been interwoven into the school system, a kind of fear that even the greatest school safety measures cannot prevent. Such instances being the Columbine, Newtown, and the more recent Parkland school shooting. It cannot be controlled who does the killing, but what can be isolated is the weapon those chose as their aid in the slaughtering. So many lives are lost in these devastations a step towards preventing more from being lost is increasing gun control. Without increased gun control anyone can play the role of God and chose to end the lives

If there is no change in gun control regulations those lives that were lost meant nothing, there is no promise or even reassurance that it will never happen again. For once our nation’s biggest concern is not who won the Super Bowl or will be bringing home gold medals. The attention is now on something that it has allowed to happen, again and again. Gun violence is not isolated to just the United States, in 1996 Australia had its own run in with an attack aided by military style weapons. An attack in a very public location that took the lives of 35 individuals and wounded 18 others, amongst those dead is a young mother and her two children. Their government’s immediate response was a ban on the use, distribution, and importing of semi-automatic and military style weapons across the country. Anticipating the outrage, they offered a gun buyback program, before long the whole nation is rid of weapons of such caliber in a civilized manner. As a result, there has been no more mass shootings. The Australian government even added a National Handgun Agreement, accompanied by its very own buyback program, thus eliminating handguns out of the equation. “Port Arthur had followed too many prior deadly shooting sprees and Australians were clearly sick to death of them” (Leaf). It would be wise for the American government to take similar methods

Shopping for new clothes and supplies are among the many stressors families with students from K-12 must face. Now with the looming threat of who is next those seem to be the least of our worries. As Source C jokingly portrays, a cartoon depicting such a dilemma though there is a very prominent subliminal message. That message being, along with the normal necessities for successful school year, families now must also stock up on protection such as tasers, bulletproof vests, and pepper spray as a way to protect their children. School is an institute where education should be the number one priority. How can one focus on learning when they are brimming with fear that their school could be the next site of a shooting? It is difficult to see a brighter future when it seems the American government can only provide empty promises to ban even “bump stocks”, an accessory commonly used to make deadly weapons even more lethal. “We cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make a difference” (Johnson). Though some may argue that firearms are necessary to defend ourselves and that it is our given right to own them. That right shouldn’t stand if it means innocent lives lost. It’s a scary thought to think that only criminals and felons would illegally be in possession of weapons like this if we were to follow in Australia’s footsteps but there is a greater chance that it would do some