On June 12, a man went into a gay nightclub and opened fire on unsuspecting victims, killing 49 of them and critically injuring 53 others. Police shot and killed this man after a three hour stand off but the world was already thrown into chaos. Now families and friends are mourning their loved ones and wondering how something this tragic could happen. Many are blaming the lack of gun control in the United States and are calling for stricter laws to be enforced. Others are pointing out the hypocrisy in the strict laws made against the LGBTQ community and the lack of laws made to restrict gun ownership. The United States currently holds the most amount of gun related deaths in the world but many of these deaths are not a result of mass shootings. Many of the deaths are caused from suicide, homicide, accidental shootings, or unknown reasons.
I have never lost a loved one to a mass shooting or ever experienced gun violence so I cannot say that I understand what the families of those who have are going through. I can only imagine the grief they are experiencing and understand that from that grief and pain, they look for answers and reasons as to why something like this could ever happen. In these moments, people turn the blame on the guns that took the life of their loved one and government officials for not having stricter laws on gun control. They have every right to blame the government for not regulating laws on gun ownership and purchases, but how do we blame an inanimate object?
Here is what I think on this topic: the United States has always had the right to bear arms to protect oneself from danger if there ever is any. It is an amendment that was put into law when the country was still getting to its feet. The people who made this amendment could have never predicted the violence and deaths that would later result in today's society because of this right. There was no way they could have foreseen that people with violent tempers and an unstable mental capacity would have the freedom to purchase a gun and turn it on innocent people. But the government of today have seen and now know that this is possible and it occurs too often.
I do strongly believe that there should be laws and regulations on who is able to purchase a gun but I do believe that this is a two way road. Growing up, my parents had purchased guns and taught my brothers and I how to handle them safely. We were not allowed to touch any of the guns until we were able to perfectly explain how to handle them and we knew never to point them at a person, whether it was loaded or not. We would go out to a shooting range and my parents would show us step by step how to disarm a gun, aim and shoot, but it was always with their guidance and in the safety parameters of a shooting range.
These guns were always kept in a safe that neither of my brothers or I knew the combination to. I was taught from a very young age on how to handle these guns and knew that they could kill someone in an instant. I was taught never to fear them because I was in control of the weapon not the other way around. This is what I think is wrong with the way people think about gun control. They are taught or learn to fear a gun because of its capability to kill someone but are never taught that they are in control of it.
I also believe that stricter laws on gun purchases won't solve these high death rates because people have been able to find ways of getting a gun, legally or not. Stricter laws will only cause more fear that the guns control us and we are incapable of controlling them. I don't believe this is what our forefathers thought was the case when they created the second amendment. I pray that the world will someday see the end of mass shootings and violent deaths caused by guns and weapons of mass destruction but I think this will only happen when we don't let our fear of these weapons take control of us.
