Point of View
Gun Control In America
By Trevor Roberts
Dec 19, 2012 - 8:40:26 PM

Victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, Credit @darrekthornton/twitter

UNITED STATES—The tragedy that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week broke hearts all across the nation.  Upon hearing the news I couldn’t help, but think about my young nieces and nephews who are similar ages to the children whose lives were savagely taken by Adam Lanza.  To express in words what I’m feeling at this moment is impossible; the innocence of children being taken is horrifying.  Even worse is the idea of knowing that these children were unable to defend themselves haunts me. 

The big debate all across America is the issue of gun control.  It’s a discussion we all need to have.  Lanza who forced his way into the school using an automatic weapon is frightening.  The ability for people to get their hands on such dangerous weapons at the click of a mouse or by entering a store that sells such weaponry is hard to fathom. 

This year alone we’ve had unspeakable acts of violence at the hands of a gunman who has been armed with an arsenal of weapons at their disposal.  Over the summer, James Holmes shot and killed 12 people and wounded more than 50 people as he released gunfire at a midnight screening for the picture “The Dark Knight Rises.”  The month of December also saw a shooter unleash gunfire on unsuspecting shoppers at an Oregon shopping mall.  The ability to obtain a gun is way too easy in America. 

Even worse is the fact that we have this engrained thought in our minds that because of the Second Amendment we have the right to bare arms.  Everyone thinks because of that amendment we can carry a gun if we want to and so many Americans hold that right to the core.  My question is why in the world do you need an assault rifle, a machine gun, a weapon that fires multiple rounds with just one click? There is no reason for people to have a gun of that caliber.  By us preventing individuals from having access to these weapons we may be able to control incidents like what we’ve seen in the past year from happening. 

In my honest opinion, banning the sale of weapons over the internet could also help us constrain the gun issues in America.  It does not help to have every single person in the country having a gun. It will only open doors for more violence.  President Obama held a press conference on Wednesday, December 19 to discuss the issue of gun control in America.  Putting a restriction on American’s having access to semiautomatic weapons.  Senator Dianne Fienstein (D-California) has indicated interest in introducing legislation that renews that ban in the next Congress.

President Obama also tackled a discussion to focus more attention on mental illness, an issue that many Americans prefer not to discuss.  The truth is there are many people out there who are in need of help and them not getting that help can turn into catastrophic situations especially if they have access to a gun.  Another way to prevent mass shootings is to only allow the access of semiautomatic guns to the military. 

There is no way for us to ban the use of all guns to Americans.  It could help as it would prevent people from committing dangerous crimes using the threat of a gun.  People have the right to have guns in their homes, so there will always be people making sure that right is upheld to the fullest.  The horrifying issue about the shooting at Newtown, Connecticut is that we are now forced to address an issue that we should have been discussing such a long time ago.  We have to do something about gun control in America.  It’s out of control and when the lives of innocent children are lost because of some madmen it’s unacceptable.