In the wake of another mass shooting, American citizens have begun to question government intervention in regards to gun control. The century-old argument has surfaced tensions between those who are for and against gun control laws and continues to boil as large gun tragedies consistently occur. One side debates that the Second Amendment is not an unlimited right to own guns, and there should be restrictions to who and how they should be handled and distributed. Opposing, those who are against gun control argue that the Second Amendment gives way to gun ownership and to take that away would be an infringement on safety and security. Both sides provide valid arguments, but the solution continues to be undetermined even as gun violence rises to become a bigger issue.
Gun control has never been a huge issue that I have been overly passionate about, but in light of recent incidents, I have noticed a reoccurring effect. Despite the lives lost and destruction done, Americans seem to put more focus on the government's negligence in gun control rather than how to heal a hurting community. Looking at Twitter this past week, there was an abundance of respect being given to Orlando, but more than less, it seemed a number of millennials were more concerned with bashing the tolerance for guns rather than giving their condolences. The issues need to be handled with care and diligence rather than hatred and bigotry toward the current policies.
The problem that seems to revolve around the motivations that cause these mass shootings is not how they acquire the guns, but what prejudice they hold against the group of individuals or themselves that causes them to become willing to take lives. For example, the Orlando murderer specifically targeted the predominantly gay night club due to his hatred towards the minority. Despite his alleged ISIS intentions, it was found that his bias was one of the main reasons he performed the act. Another example is the Sandy Hook shooter who became psychotic enough to take innocent lives, but it was discovered that he had childhood issues that motivated his actions. Both shootings and hundreds of others begin with the underlying effect of hostility – the same hostility that is being carried out toward gun control laws.
In a country filled with violence everywhere we turn, there are still larger issues that contribute to mass deaths besides bullets. In 2015, knives killed five times as many people as rifles, but there seems to be a lack of effort toward the issue of knife control. The cause of these issues goes far beyond what the government can handle, and even if we remove the weapons that do such destruction, there will still be those whose self-control will never be strong enough and who will act upon their catalysts: hatred and prejudice.
America needs a reboot in what in means to live in harmony with those despite the differences we may share. Mark 12:31 states that we should, "'Love [our] neighbor as [our]self.' There is no commandment greater than these," and whether you're a religious individual or not, this is a positive statement to live by. We share diversities that are never going to fully overlap, but the difference comes when we accept those for what they are and decide to live in peace rather than discrimination. Gun control laws might have a lasting effect on eradicating unfit individuals from purchasing guns, but it in no way will they remove the violent and racist world that we have created for ourselves.
So maybe it is time to stop putting focus on arguing about controlling the weapons that are being used to perform the catastrophes, but rather focus on bettering our nation as a whole to prevent them all together.
