Mass shootings have almost become the norm and that is a scary thing to think about. The big question on everyone's mind is "how are we going to change this?" Like everything else in politics, people have very different opinions on how they think this should be solved. Some advocate for stronger laws regarding guns, a.k.a gun control measures. Others say it is the person and not the gun that does the killing. But, these are just the very basics of the gun debate. There are those who oppose most measures of gun control, because they do not want their guns being taken away. Then there are the people who want to ban certain guns and accessories. This is just the purchasing and owning of guns part of the argument, there is also the conceal to carry gun debate. Should civilians be allowed to carry concealed guns and if so, what do they have to go through to do this? As you can see, this debate is not an easy one, like with so many other debates.

What makes this one even harder is that it is about the safety of the people in this country. It is about the safety and well-being of our friends, our family, and ourselves. What is the best option here? Arm everyone? Add more guns into an already violent world? Or take away guns? Keep them in our society, but make it harder to obtain them? There is no simple answer here and that is because of one major component of this debate. It is the hypothetical situations. Every time this debate happens there is a "what if?" scenario. The problem with this is that no one can predict the future. We can only look at the evidence from the past and unfortunately we do not have much to go on in this realm of problems.

We, as a country, need to do something, but we cannot even manage that. Democrats, not Republicans, can't even compromise on the simplest measures of gun control. Just look at the recent attempts at doing this. If not agreeing with anything was not bad enough, the two parties were so up in arms that members almost got in fist fights. There are the people supposed to be representing the people of this country and they cannot even come together and compromise. Was Orlando not a wake up call? 49 people, human beings, were murdered in cold blood. But, people still cannot see that a gun is extremely instrumental in killing a lot of people.

Yes, a gun itself does not kill someone. But what can do more damage, a gun or a knife? I hear the argument a lot that item x does not cause x, the person does. Let's take the car example. A car does not kill someone, the person driving drunk or texting does. First off, a car is not a weapon that is solely meant to kill someone. Second, we are taking measures as a country to decrease this. We are providing increased education, resources for people who are drunk, and stricter laws. Sure this has not stopped the problem, and it will probably never stop unless we get self-driving cars, but it is a step in the right direction. America cannot even admit it has a gun problem to begin with, so how are we ever going to take steps to solve the problem?

Lastly, I want to look at the purpose of a gun. With the weird analogies floating around, I think it is important to look at the nature of what we are talking about. Cars, spoons, and pencils, are not items created for the purpose to harm or kill someone. Guns are and it really sucks that they are so ingrained in our society. I know people want to protect their family and if they do that with a gun that usually means taking someone's life that did not need to be taken. Conceal to carries and guns in houses, puts the decision of whether someone lives or dies to that of a civilian.