Pro Gun Control Op-ed

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Gun control laws have been a huge controversy in America since the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado in 2012. The lack of gun laws contributed to 12 lives lost that day. There have been a number of shootings after the one in Aurora, where if the possession of guns was more difficult to have, then the situation could have been avoided entirely.

States such as Iowa, New Jersey, California, and New York have taken matters into their own hands by passing stricter gun laws. These laws are as simple as requiring a background check to any gun salesman and anyone trying to buy a gun, the banning of assault weapons, and limiting purchase to one handgun per person per month. As our technology advances with being able to rapidly fire a weapon with less reload time, then it is appropriate to say that a civilian should not have that type of gun in their possession. In states where gun laws have been passed, studies have shown that gun violence has gone down. In fact, in the state of California, they are the 9th in the country for lowest number of gun deaths per year. This proves that these laws are working, and they’re not just put into place as one more thing the government has control over.

Background checks are a really good idea, in that the seller can pull up information on the buyer such as mental health history and a possible criminal record. That can determine whether or not the buyer is qualified to own a gun, based on pre-set regulations. Banning of assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines is also a really big one. There is no reason to have a military grade machine gun in your possession for “self-defense”. Those guns were designed to kill, not to stop a home intruder. We need these gun laws as a country, not just certain states.

On the other side of the argument, anti- gun control activists claim that these laws are violating their rights, specifically the second amendment. They believe that if the government messes with the right to bear arms, then they’ll make an attempt to take control over everything. In some ways I could see why people think that. Because once the government changes one of the amendments, what’s stopping them from reshaping our entire country into something completely foreign.

However, I still stand with pro- gun control. Our country needs regulations and restrictions for something so powerful. Too many lives have been lost to the lack of laws on determining who can own these weapons and what types of guns can be sold.