For the past few decades, it has become all too common to flip on the television and see a breaking news story about some horrible act of mass murder, more specifically, a mass shooting.  Unfortunately, there continues to be a steady rise in the number of shooting events, with some of the most recent and notable shootings occurring at places such as Virginia Tech, a Colorado movie theatre, and Newtown, Connecticut, where a young man entered an elementary school and took the lives of twenty innocent children.  The only way to solve the problem is to find the root of the cause, so one questions the motives that lead these criminals to commit such horrid acts. The answer to this problem lies within our own government: it is our own lackadaisical laws on gun control. It has become far too easy for any individual to get his or her hands on a dangerous firearm and use it unlawfully. As a result, the number of guns in the public possession is rising, and with the current laws set in place, there is nothing the Unites States can do to stop it. This nation's lack of gun control is the direct cause for the increase in its mass shooting events.

The increase in mass shootings in America is supported by groundbreaking data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  In the Twenty First Century alone, the Bureau has identified over 160 active shooter events (Barrett).  An active shooter is an individual who is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a well-populated area (Barrett).  From the year 2000 to 2006, the United States averaged 6.4 active shooting events per year.  From 2006 to 2016, that number has drastically increased to 16.4 incidents per year (Barrett).  In total, almost 500 innocent people have been killed and over 550 have been seriously wounded or harmed (Barrett).  In each case, the motive of the shooter varies, but the people themselves are all disturbed by some sort of personal grievance.  Because the United States fails to create laws that can prevent weapons of mass murder, such as assault rifles, from falling into the wrong hands, the number of occurrences will most likely continue to rise.

In recent years, there have been several mass shootings inside the United States in relation to Islamic Terrorist groups.  Earlier this year in California, a husband and wife, who had recently pledged their loyalty to ISIS through a Facebook post, entered the office of The Department of Public Health, where they each had worked, and killed 14 of their colleagues.  They were armed with AR-15 assault rifles, 9-mm. semiautomatic handguns, and over 1,600 rounds of ammunition (Davidson).  In another case, a man walked into a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado, again loaded with several weapons and a few hundred rounds of ammunition, and killed three more people (Davidson).  Gun laws are less regulated now then they have ever been before.  Thirty years ago, one had to go through an extensive process before he or she could purchase any sort of weapon.  Now, there are as many guns in private hands in America as there are people (Davidson).  Anybody who pleases to has the ability to buy a gun in the twenty first century.  A person who is on the no-fly list has the ability to walk into a store and purchase a weapon (Davidson), and there is nothing that can get in his or her way.  There are no laws in place, nor any regulations set.  And how does the government combat this?  They combat it by calling for more guns!  More laws are being passed to make it easier to buy a firearm, instead of limiting the number of guns and weapons in U.S. streets in households.  Essentially, this leads to the bad guys, potential active shooters, buying more guns, which leads to the good guys, everyday Americans, buying more guns to combat the guns that the bad guys bought.  There is no logic behind that.  More guns will lead to more shootings, and more shootings will lead to the deaths of more innocent Americans.  If this trend continues, the number of guns in the hands of Americans will forever be increasing, leading to more opportunities for people with grievances or grudges or any sort of emotional disturbance to carry out their deadly intentions.  The United States' lack of gun control is putting the lives of the U.S. citizens at serious risk.

In the last 20 years or so, gun control studies have been sparse.  Back in 1996, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ran a study on the effects of keeping firearms in the home.  It showed that a firearm in the home increased the risk for suicide or homicide within it (Tucker).  This study was heavily criticized by the National Rifle Association, a "pro-gun" association that is greatly funded by some of the top weapons manufacturers in the United States (Tucker).  Because of that criticism, Congress reacted by cutting off all funding to the CDC, the only association that was running gun control studies at that time (Tucker).  For 17 years, the CDC went without a single dollar from the government for gun research.  And each year after the next, there came an increase in the average amount of mass shootings than the year before it.  On January 16, 2013, President Obama chose to propose a change when he issued an executive memorandum to conduct research on the causes of gun violence and its prevention (Tucker). Criminal background checks and mental health checks for all gun sales were two legislative proposals that Obama pushed across.  Others included limiting ammunition magazines to ten rounds, providing money for schools to help develop emergency shooting response plans, and expanding mental health programs across the U.S.  All of this came just about a month after the horrible shooting in Newtown.  Although polls showed that 9 out of every 10 Americans supported the new ideas, the Senate defied the numbers and blocked several of the proposed firearm restrictions (O'Keefe and Rucker).  "All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," a visibly angry Obama said as he delivered a response to the nation (O'Keefe and Rucker).  The government continues to reject laws and proposals that can help prevent and decrease the number of mass shootings, instead allowing for gun ownership to increase and letting firearms to continue to fall into the wrong hands.  Without set regulations on gun control, our nation will continue to fall victim to these violent shootings, and the number of deaths shall increase drastically.  

  President Obama recognized gun control's direct effect on the rise of mass shootings and took steps to help its cause, but to this day, he continues to get rejected by the Senate.  Although it is a Constitutional right to bear arms, one cannot stop murders with more guns.  The number of firearms in the streets and households of America continues to increase.  If a weapon finds itself in the wrong hands, countless lives can be affected.  The United States' lack of gun control laws and regulation continues to put the American Citizens' lives in danger.

