The shooting at Umpqua Community
College was a horrific tragedy. I wish I felt like the incident could be given
more solemn note in respect for the lives of those lost but I fear that unless
we use one of these events as an example to create a change then it may settle
and simply become another statistic. Mass
killings such as the Umpqua one seem to be getting more common in America as
can be seen by the nearly 300 mass shootings that we have seen in just 2015
alone (Mass Shootings). The even crazier thing is that given the general rise in shootings in America
over the last decade we have seen very few shifts in policy (!!???!!). It is as if as a
country we have has just decided to accept these kinds of shooting s as common
and a part of life. Something really needs to be done about this. I am of the mind that America needs tighter gun policies. We
need restrictions on the type of weapons we allow the public to own. We need
more extensive background checks. We need background checks for private weapons
sales because the “gun show loophole” is a serious problem. We need a weapons
ownership database that can help determine gun ownership legality. I would even
go as far as to say that we need gun storage inspections as often times the
owner of a gun is not the one responsible for the shooting. There should also
be less violence promoted throughout our media and culture. I do not think
everyone should have their guns forcefully removed from them. I used to hunt
and I understand the need for recreational weapons. People do not want their
second amendment rights stepped on, I get that (the second amendment was
actually made in response to previously being controlled by Britain.) But the
right to own a weapon should not infringe on the rights of other people to live.
Arguments can be made for gun ownership. People argue that
guns create safety. I shall, like others, use Australia as a case study. Australia
faced a huge mass killing 19 years ago. Just 12 days after that the government
rammed through an extensive gun control policy plan that in a span of two years
removed a bunch of semi-automatic, to fully automatic weapons from public
purchase. The government also purchased back thousands of these now illegal
guns from citizens. Beyond that it updated the requirements for purchasing a
weapon and banned private sales of weapons (Australian Gun Buyback). Gun violence dropped dramatically.
The average homicide rate has gone down 47% since passing these laws (Here). Annually
an average of 0.14 in 100,000 people die from gun related homicide in Australia
vs. the 2.97 per 100,000 people in America who die annually from gun related
homicides (And Here). Australia has by many pro gun media been made to look like a failure
as can be seen by this "Article". This article is misleading. They use statistics from the website Vox, a
website that recently published an article saying that Australia’s change in
gun policy was extremely successful and should be used as a model (Here). Guns don’t
make people safer. That is just a lie. Another popular pro gun source is
Chicago who now has an extremely high percentage of concealed weapons carriers. Crime is down. There is no doubting that. However, gun related deaths
are also on the rise with 2015 being a record breaking year for gun related
deaths coming from the Chicago Tribune. Once again, as I stated above, I do not
want to go into your homes and take away your guns. That is ridiculous. But I
do think that the types of guns available and the general availability of guns need
to decrease.
For those of you who are pro guns rights, I want to hear
your defense. What is it that makes America so prone to gun violence if not for
our loose gun policy? I highly doubt we have a higher percentage of mentally
unstable people vs. other countries. I do not doubt that a large part of it
stems from the type of violence our country promotes. Another source of
violence might be that our health care system is not able to reach out to enough
people who need help. I will not accept the second amendment as an argument as
I am not even suggesting that we don’t allow people to have guns. Whatever the
cause of these mass shootings is, it needs to stop. Something needs to change.
