My personal exposure to gun madness came when a family friend showed up at my front door, flustered, disturbed and stressed out. I was shocked that he was at my house because he was supposed to be in Alaska with his dad. Later I found out that the trip was canceled because his dad had threatened him with a gun.
He was so terrified he ran four miles, jumped on a train, and and then ran another mile until he showed up at my house. I was surprised to see the effect a gun could have, even without it going off- just the sheer terror and destruction that can be caused by seeing a gun.
The numbers of gun-related incidents are staggering: on average, more than 100,000 people are shot in the United States every year. Every day, about 289 people are shot and 86 of those people die. Between 2000 and 2010, 335,609 people died from gunshot wounds in the U.S. that is more than the population of St. Louis!
Guns have the scariest effect on kids. In 2010, 15,576 kids were injured and 2,694 were killed by guns. This is three times more than the number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan that year. Not only are thousands of kids injured by guns, but half of all juveniles murdered in 2010 were killed by firearms. Furthermore, many mass murders have been made possible because of guns finding their way into the hands of troubled kids. In the past ten years, 900 people have died from mass shootings in schools and other public institutions.
Guns are not a joke. Their main purpose is to kill. They are dangerous to have around, even if they are supposed to be for protection. Just a few days ago a nine-year-old girl accidentally shot and killed her shooting instructor. Not only is it sad that a man’s life was taken, but the nine-year-old girl will be traumatized for the rest of her life. Guns can never be totally safe; accidents are inevitable and often fatal.
Many pro-gun advocates argue that the Second Amendment gives them the right to bear arms, and that there is no point in making laws that control gun ownership because criminals will get guns no matter what. Their favorite adage is “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” If so, how can these pro-gun advocates explain why U.S. juveniles are seventeen times more likely to be killed by a gun than their peers on twenty five other high income countries put together? The point of making laws that increase gun control is to reduce the opportunity for criminals and unstable people to get guns, making it harder for them to kill innocent people. The goal of gun-control laws is to put restrictions on gun ownership in order to reduce violence as much as possible. It may not be the perfect solution, but we need to try everything we can to reduce the carnage. Although the Second Amendment does grant people the right to bear arms, that does not mean there cannot be any limits or controls. In the United States, people also have the right to freedom of speech and religion, but limits on these freedoms have been imposed when it comes to the safety of other citizens, especially children. The Supreme Court has agreed that individuals have the right to own guns, but that it is also necessary for there to be restrictions on gun ownership.
Firearms are not only dangerous for the individual but destructive to our country as a whole. Guns do not equate with justice. They can hurt people no matter who they are, going off and killing the most respectable person in the world. Unlike attacking someone with fists or a knife, guns generate a distance between the act of pulling the trigger and hurting someone, allowing people to hide from the reality of what they are doing and for more accidents to happen. That is not something that the people of the United States should support. Guns kill people. Another Favorite argument of pro-gun advocates is that “people kill people, not guns.” Although technically true, guns increase the number of people and individual can kill exponentially. A device that’s sole purpose is to injure and kill, that someone can use without needing to think twice, can only be bad. It allows a careless act or a rash decision to ruin many lives. Guns make it possible for one person to decide to kill another person and to act on that decision, all in a matter of seconds. The consequences of such a split-second decision destroy not only the life of the person who has died, but also the one who has killed.
Putting restrictions on gun ownership will not be easy and there may not be a perfect way to control gun use, but it is essential for us to come together as a country and try to save ourselves from the violence and tragedy that is associated with unregulated gun ownership and use. We owe it to our friends, family, and ourselves to enact laws that protect the people of our country from the madness of unfettered gun use.
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