Waiting For The Next Massacre

The trigger is pulled, and in less than a minute, children by the tens are laying on the floor. Unfortunately, a real life situation like this actually occurred. Adam Lanza came bursting into the Sandy Hook elementary school heavily armed, where he killed twenty-six innocent people (CNN). Twenty of them happened to be children. Think of the parents who got a call from their child’s school, having to hear that their child walked into that school alive to being carried out dead. Some limitation needs to be done about guns, as we sit here waiting for the next massacre due to lax gun laws.

The next massacre could initiate at any moment. NBC News gathered information about gun violence in America, which states, “Every day in the U.S., an average of 289 people are shot. Eighty-six of them die: 30 are murdered, 53 kill themselves, two die accidentally, and one is shot in a police intervention, the Brady campaign reports.” (NBC News). With this, there are already many issues involving guns, including the access for someone to get their hands on one. To clarify, David Gura, a Marketplace reporter, points out how easy it is to buy a firearm in different places. People can just fill out basic information, “’yes or no’ questions,” and that person have themselves a gun. (Marketplace).

Limitations or stricter gun laws need to be reinforced to prevent criminals from getting their hands on firearms. Private dealers, even licensed dealers make it quite easy to access a gun for anyone. When David Gura went to go buy a pump-action Remington 870, he states, “To buy one, I would need to fill out a 4473 – a six page form from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.” Then, later saying, “That form, the 4473, won’t go. That means, the FBI doesn’t have anything close to a complete record of what guns are sold.” Now knowing this, the thought of knowing how simple a criminal could get a gun is quite intimidating. In any case, a strengthened background check and rules required to obtain a gun, potentially lower the amount of criminals carrying around firearms on the streets of daily routines.

Undeniably, people are dying everyday from gun violence. NBC News states, “One person is killed by a firearm every 17 minutes, 87 people are killed during an average day, and 609 are killed every week. (source: CDC).” This is concerning to everyday lives. No one knows when or who the next victim for a gun crime is. Establishing solid gun control laws will conceivably decrease these statistics.

We should also think about the safety for kids. The world is already a dangerous place. Now, factoring in guns makes it more the deadly. An accidental fire could kill a child in seconds.”82 children under five years old died from firearms in 2010 compared with 58 law enforcement officers killed by firearms in the line of duty (sources: CDF, CDC, FBI).” (NBC News). Putting the information together, it’s apparent that more children died than officers. Children can’t defend themselves, so they rely on other people who have guns such as the police. So what do people do when the police aren’t there? Naturally, the only way to stop a child from dying is from keeping the gun out of the wrong hands. As William Shakespeare wrote in “Julius Caesar,” where he compares Caesar to a “serpent’s egg,” it’s suggested to kill the serpent while still in it’s egg. (Julius Caesar: Act 2, Scene 1). This saying provides great meaning. To stop something bad that is inevitably going to happen, before it happens. So to say, keep the criminals from being able to get guns so easily in the first place, and prevent that kid down the block from getting shot.

The National Rifle Association has found a way to deal with gun issues with guns. They proposed to have “armed police officers, security guards or staff members in every American school, and urged states to loosen gun restrictions to allow trained teachers and administrators to carry weapons.” (The New York Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg). This may seem fair at first; however, doing so will require money and time. Having armed people around the children would make them feel as though they don’t live in much of a free environment, intimidating as well. Most parents wouldn’t feel comfortable having their child going to a school in a building full of guns.

There’s an argument that “guns save more lives than they take”. (Fact Sheet: Guns Save Lives). It practically states that we shouldn’t strengthen our system with gun laws. Maybe even make it more accessible to families. True, some people are good and only use guns for good. However, there are people out there that aren’t. Allowing these criminals to gets their hands on guns more easily potentially means that more gun homicides will result. Doing nothing as well doesn’t help. Guns do sometimes have their benefits. However, if we limit them from even giving criminals a chance to obtain firearms, then we wouldn’t need to worry about gun threats from the beginning.

Above all, we need to limit guns and strengthen lax gun laws, to improve the safety of our environment. There needs to be a limitation of where guns can be taken. Using guns against guns doesn’t help. Doing nothing at all gets you nowhere. Action needs to be engaged or the next massacre will occur.