After a recent shooting at a community college in Oregon, the controversial topic of gun control has resurfaced and flooded the media. While in past years I used to believe citizens should be able to have the freedom to own guns for safety or hunting purposes, recent gun violence has caused me to switch sides on this political debate.

     I used to believe that anyone who would commit a crime using a gun didn’t care about laws anyway and would be unaffected by the illegalization of firearms. Similar to the quote I’ve heard, “Meth isn’t sold in stores, but people still do it. Why would guns be any different?’ As for myself, I would have no idea where to find meth even if I wanted it, and same would be for a gun if it were made illegal.  Therefore, gun violence would go down due to lack of access.

     Recently in the news was a story of a 12-year-old boy who shot an 8-year-old girl because the girl wouldn’t let him pet her dog. The boy was outraged, found his father’s loaded hunting shotgun, and shot and killed the young girl. If guns were illegal for civilian use, this boy would not have had access. He is not a career criminal who would find access to a gun, pay hundreds of dollars for a gun, and then use it to murder his neighbor. He used the gun because it was available. The gun shouldn’t have been loaded and in an open area, but how could that be regulated if that was the law? Would there be gun police that knock on your door for a random inspection? “Hello, sir, I am here to see that all weapons are in a locked, secure cabinet and that they are unloaded. Thanks, see you again next month.” Right, that would be effective.

     Many gun felonies that are committed aren’t even done so by the owner of the weapon. For this exact reason, doing mental health screenings would not be an effective solution to gun crimes either. If guns remain legal, there should be a yearly mental health screening. However, some people are deranged enough to bring a gun to a private location and shoot strangers even when they do not have visible symptoms of a mental illness. Also, even if the father of the family passes all gun restriction tests with flying colors, his teenage kid with access to it may not.

     Many argue that criminals will still have access to guns and it will leave civilians defenseless. As I mentioned earlier, only career criminals will go to such lengths. The run of the mill burglar that just wants to put food on the table for his kids, like the ones we would have around here, won’t have access to a gun. It’s not like you could just dial up 1-800-BLACKMARKET and speak to a man named Jack about getting a shotgun. Not to mention, Australia harshly restricted civilian use of guns and they have one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Many argue that civilians should be able to carry a firearm to protect themselves. Gun accessibility will go down; therefore, contrary to popular belief, many criminals will not have access to guns. In the event that you do feel threatened by a person with or without a firearm, you can call the police. They will be permitted to carry guns because they have been trained with proper safety and have regular mental health tests. Despite recent media coverage, policemen are there to protect the people.

     It’s a hard topic to consider, especially in a rural community with many people that love to hunt. However, the few outweigh the many. There are too many people that use guns for heinous, unspeakable, and tragic crimes. There have been too many lives taken and while it is terribly sad that the world has come to this point, it has. After the first few terrorist acts in America, regulations were made on what products a person could buy. Why? People were being killed and injured with bombs made by easily accessible items. Yes, terrible crimes will still occur if guns are taken away, but that’s not a reason to not fight for a change. Many gun crimes are only committed because of availability. How many school shootings, robbery turned homicides, and drive by shootings have to happen before we wake up and realize that while people do kill people and guns don’t, guns make it easier and accessible?

     I wish gun control didn’t have to exist. I wish people could be trusted to use their weapons for recreational activities such as hunting, or just for protection in the most dire of situations. However, in this imperfect world there are bad people that do bad things and I, for one, don’t want to make it any easier for awful things to happen in my community and in my country.