Regulation and the control over gun ownership have steadily increased in recent years, especially within the past decade. School shootings, terrorist threats, as well as countless other specific instance of dangerous possibilities in today's society has made responsible gun ownership more difficult than ever. While making it more difficult for the occasional hunter or gun enthusiast to buy, own, and even use firearms, the horrific events that have harmed or killed innocent people throughout the US and even internationally have proved that some changes to regulation are very necessary. 

I'm very interested in this current topic of discussion among politics due to my personal background and upbringing. I've grown up around guns my entire life. Whether through my love of hunting or my beliefs in self-defense for myself, as well as my home and family, I have had a great deal of experience with gun ownership and use. I personally believe that every man and woman has the right to defend him or herself in any given situation and a good deal of that can come down to the right to bear arms, especially with firearms. I also believe that every man and woman should be allowed to own guns purely for sport. Hunting was a big part of my life growing up in farmland areas of Maryland, and whether hunting to protect my pets and family or purely for sport, it's a skillful hobby to be interested in and one I will always love. I'm very qualified to write on this highly controversial issue because of this, however I am also qualified because of where I grew up. In the more country part of Maryland in which I grew up, hunting was commonplace and so was the belief that every man should be able to defend his home and family in the case of an intruder or similar situation. My father, a board member for the Maryland Police, taught me from a young age that I should and would protect my home and family from anyone or anything that attempted to harm them or myself when it came to our property. However, in the not so far from home city of Baltimore, I've also seen the way with which the use of guns can be highly detrimental. Baltimore has been one of the top ten cities in homicides for the past decade, and being so close to my home and living environment, I was able to take away valuable insight towards the destruction guns can have as well. 

Through research I have found three sources that offer a particular standpoint or political controversy that highlight the state of the debate over gun control, and ultimately help to uncover the way with which the issues surrounding this can be dealt with. The first article describes how local gun control groups throughout the city of Chicago are rallying businesses in order to try to convince them to ban concealed and non-concealed carrying in their businesses. This, while not affecting the mast majority of the population, would in fact put forth a statement that guns are not wanted anywhere near businesses, let alone communities at all. This article can be valued towards the fact that a large majority of the US population has been made scared of guns. The main interest of the article is to get guns out of common spaces for a given population to try and avoid any situation with which the guns can be used. People would feel much more comfortable with rules in places prohibiting the carrying of firearms; despite the fact that the people who would use them in a harmful manner aren't exactly following laws to begin with. The source, however, is credible. Todd Beam an, a writer and blogger for NewsMax is a very credible source. Working for a public news company with editors and publishers to check and recheck your information means that the source is thoroughly inspected for factual evidence and authenticity. 

The next article highlights a more political aspect of the ongoing debate over gun regulation and how politics can be manipulated by what is believed to be "popular belief". The article describes how Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders has flipped his position on gun control after the likes of Hillary Clinton and other non-gun supporters pressured him. He will be cosponsoring a bill that will give victims of gun violence the right to sue gun manufacturers, a right that has until this point shielded those companies from prosecution in the sale of weapons to criminals. While this can seem to the vast majority of people as good political movement in the race for presidency, in reality it looked bad on him as a presidential candidate due to the fact that he flipped his standpoint so severely merely to gain support when as president he would not plan on taking much action in that direction, showing the unintended values and interests of the article while the intended are obvious. The author of the article was Tim Devaney, a writer and blogger for The Hill on their website. He is fairly a fairly credible source due to the fact that he is a hired writer for a known publisher, and whose work is edited and proofed for quality before posting.

The last article showed a progression towards a solution to the given issue. The Cincinnati covered a story in which US Senate candidate PG Sittenfeld, currently a Cincinnati city councilman, proposed a new idea in the constant gray area debate over gun control regulations. Sittenfeld believes, like some others have voiced, that federal gun control laws should not exist and in their place there should be individual city to city regulations. PG proposed the idea in terms of Ohio's cities specifically, however, this type of regulation could see fit to any city within the US, resolving an issue without any resolution in near sight. This ultimately is the real valued aspect of the article and I believe the intended interest of Sittenfeld. The authors, Jason Williams and Jessie Balmert, are very credible sources as writers for the Cincinnati. This individual news provider for the city of Ohio is a part of the USA today network, a highly recognized and credible source for news everywhere.

The research question is a highly debatable and controversial topic. This is primarily due to the fact that in some areas, violence from gun ownership or possession is much too prevalent, and a solution is needed in the effort to halt the destruction of lives and property because of it. Singular, federal, laws can't regulate gun control though; the issue comes down to an area specific necessity that must be dealt with on a state by state or even city by city basis given the area's makeup of environment. The given sources for the most part, only drove me further along with the perspective with which I had started with at the beginning of my research; everyone should be able to own and use guns for protection if necessary. However, the last source showing the ideas of PG Sittenfeld altered my ideals. In the area I grew up in, guns are necessary and make me feel comfortable and safe. But, for someone who lives in close quarters with others such as in a city, guns shouldn't necessarily be allowed in some ways. I knew everyone that lived around me and trusted them, but if I had lived in an area where I didn't know many of the people that lived in close proximity to where I lived, I wouldn't feel nearly as comfortable with their possession and possible use of their guns. In the future, I might aim the scope of my research question more on the individual needs and desires of people in the US when it comes to owning and using guns and how they may vary from an individual to the next depending on the living environment around them. 

