In 2015 alone, almost 13,000 citizens were killed in the United States of America in a gun homicide, an accidental shooting, murder, or suicide. On a typical day about thirty-six Americans are killed by a gun, excluding suicides (Mascia). The sight of these numbers should be alarming to anyone who cares about the wellbeing of The United States of America and its citizens. The issue of whether or not the United States should have more gun control laws is one of the most relevant issues in today's society because there are so many components to take into consideration. One must consider the Second Amendment and the rights that it entails. One must also consider the amount of mass murders that have occurred in the past few years and the devastation that they all led to. And one must most importantly consider the safety of themselves, their friends, and their family and how they can keep themselves and their loved ones out of danger. 

This is just a glimpse at some of the issues that come along with the gun control debate. Based on the information and knowledge that we already have our hands on, it is beyond apparent that America needs more gun control laws in order to keep our country thriving and to make sure our citizens always feel safe. 

The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights states that "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" ("Second Amendment"). This amendment is one of the major contributing factors when it comes to laws on gun control for the reason that many people say that America should not impose more gun control laws because it would strip citizens of their right to bear arms (ProCon). In a 2008 US Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller, the rights of the Second Amendment were clearly outlined. This court case ruled that the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to own guns for their own personal self-defense but it is not unlimited in any way (Ropeik). Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative bastion, stated that the Second Amendment is "not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose" (Ropeik). So although the Second Amendment does give citizens the right to keep and bear arms, this amendment, just like all other laws and amendments has limits to it. By making more gun control laws, the government is not in any way attempting to completely take away all guns, they are only trying to make our country a safer place by making sure a gun can only be bought by responsible, law-abiding individuals (ProCon). This is something that more people need to understand before debating on this topic. 

Currently, in order to legally obtain a gun in America you must first fill out a form from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This form asks the potential buyers several questions including questions about their criminal background and if there is one. It asks questions pertaining to previous misdemeanors or felonies one might have had. It also asks the potential buyer if they have ever been committed into a mental institute (Smith). After one has fully completed this questionnaire form, the store then calls the FBI to run a background check on the person seeking to purchase a gun. The background check only takes a couple minutes and then, following this phone call, the buyer will either be granted or denied access to buying a gun, simple as that. This may seem like a lengthy and harsh process but denials are extremely uncommon while only occurring about 1% of the time. Moral of the story is that it has become increasingly easier to obtain a gun in the United States and this is definitely something that must be brought to attention (Smith). 

In the 2015 devastating Charleston shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the shooter, Dylann Roof bought his weapon at a local gun store in Charleston, South Carolina, not too far from where the shooting actually took place. Although Roof had been arrested earlier that year for trespassing and drug possession, he was still not denied of the purchase of this gun (Smith). This shows just how lenient the background checks have come to be. If Roof would have been denied access to purchasing a gun, nine innocent lives could have been saved. This proves that our background checks must become harsher and not so tolerant. There are bad people out there and our background checks should be able to easily spot these people and not allow them access to lethal weapons (Smith).

On top of this, there are plenty of loopholes to this process as well. One of the major loopholes is gun shows. When one purchases a gun at a gun show, a background check is not done (Smith). The thought of this is exceptionally disturbing because this could allow a gun to be put in the wrong hands and there is no telling what could happen after that. In 2013, President Obama attempted to get rid of the gun show loophole with a bill that expanded background checks but unfortunately this bill did not pass. Needless to say, it is not very difficult to obtain a gun here in the United States and this is something that I believe must be changed to ensure the safety of American citizens (Smith). 

What sparked President Obama's attempt to get rid of the gun show loophole was the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut (Smith). There were 154 shots all in a matter of about five minutes, killing twenty children and six adult staff members. This shooting was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school or grade school in United States history. The shooter, Adam Lanza, took his mother's life, his own life, and the lives of twenty-six innocent children and teachers in Sandy Hook (Raff). 

The gun Adam Lanza used for this mass murder was a Bushmaster .223 caliber model XM15 rifle (Lach). This rifle had the capacity of 30 rounds while only 14 rounds were recovered by officers with only one round left over from the shooting (Raff).  This incident shows precisely why high-capacity magazines should not be allowed and why the apparent assault weapon ban should be strengthened. There is absolutely no need for high-capacity magazines in America. It is a known fact that these types of gun typically turn murder into mass murder. Out of the 62 mass shootings between 1892 and 2012, a high-capacity magazine was used for 50 % of these cases. And it has been shown that when high-capacity guns were used in mass shootings, the death rate rose to 63% and the injury rate shot up to 156% (ProCon). David Chipman, former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agent, stated that a high-capacity magazine "turns a killer into a killing machine" and I could not agree more as I believe that this was definitely the case for the Sandy Hook shooting (Follman).

After the Sandy Hook shooting occurred, former friends and family of Adam Lanza described him as "fidgety" and "deeply troubled." Some of his friends and family even shared with news reporters that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome ("Adam Lanza Biography"). This brings up the issue on distributing guns to the mentally ill and whether or not there should be more restrictions when it comes to the mentally ill. I believe that those who suffer from a mental illness should be prohibited from owning a firearm since these people can be very unpredictable at times. A law that was enacted in 1968 states that "an individual is prohibited from buying or possessing firearms for life if he/she has been adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution" ("Guns and Mental Health"). The details of this law also include that "A person is 'committed to a mental institution' if that person has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution by a court or other lawful authority" ("Guns and Mental Health"). As you see though, this does not include a person who voluntarily committed him or herself to a mental institution and this small detail could cause many problems to arise. Another issue in this debate is that now, the federal law is allowing states to create a procedure in which previously mental ill individuals can regain back their right to own a gun ("Guns and Mental Health"). Both of these details could potentially cause important problems and instead of trying to help the mentally ill get their right to own a firearm back, we should more so be trying to keep firearms out of their unsafe hands as it puts the rest of us at a higher risk. There have been several mass shootings that were committed by mentally ill individuals including Virginia Tech, Aurora, Tuscan, and more. In many of these cases, the perpetrator legally bought the gun they used to murder with. This clearly shows that we need more gun control laws on the mentally ill in order to avoid things like this from happening in the future ("Guns and Mental Health").

Along with banning high-capacity magazines and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, I also think it would be extremely beneficial if more guns had automatic childproof safety locks on them. Accidental and unintentional shootings has become a major issue with guns today especially with small children. In 2010 alone, there were 606 deaths due to unintentional firearm shootings ("Statistics on Gun Deaths and Shootings"). States with the highest concentration of guns have nine times the amount of accidental gun deaths and out of all unintentional shooting deaths, 89% of them occur when children are playing with a loaded gun while an adult is not around (ProCon). This could easily be prevented if guns had a child safety lock. For the same reason that we put child locks on other things that could potentially harm them, we should have child locks installed on guns too. According to the leading source for pros and cons of controversial issues like gun control, 31% of unintentional shooting deaths could have been prevented by installing safety devices on guns (ProCon). Guns today do have a "safety" device but it is typically only a simple switch that small children could easily operate or unintentionally turn off. Small children are impulsive and very curious and there is nothing that can change this about them. You could take your eyes off a child for less than thirty seconds and they already have their hands on something new. For this reason alone, there should be more safety features on all guns in order to prevent accidental deaths by guns.

Another reason why America should without a doubt have more gun control laws is because of the simple fact that if there were in fact more laws, the fatality rate would decrease. In the span of 14 years, there have been a total of 464,033 deaths by guns. This includes 270,237 suicides, 174,773 homicides, and 9,983 unintentional deaths. During this same time period, guns were the leading cause of death by homicide and by suicide. Along with this, guns were the 12th leading cause of all deaths, topping several lethal diseases in which people die from every day (ProCon). These facts and statistics should open up everyone's eyes to see the downward slope that America is on and it will only get worse from here on out if we do not make a change. These numbers show the detrimental effects that guns have on death rates every year. If there were more gun control laws in the United States, there is no doubt that the amount of deaths by guns would drastically decrease. In a four-year study, Eric Fleegler conducted an experiment that compared gun fatality rates to the firearm legislative strength in each state. This study was done by rating each state on the strength of their firearm legislation and then by analyzing the fatality rates of that state. The end result conveyed that the states that had the highest rating of firearm legislation strength had the lowest fatality rates and the states that had the lowest rating of firearm legislation had the highest fatality rates. This conclusion was for overall fatalities but also for suicides and homicides individually (Fleegler). This study proves that the more gun control laws that are in place, the less fatality rates America will have. 

A common argument that many people make towards this discussion is that "Gun control laws infringe upon the right to self-defense and deny people a sense of safety" (ProCon). Where I can see where some people may be coming from, I cannot help but to disagree. Gun control laws are in no way attempting to ban all guns from all citizens ever. Gun control laws are simply trying to make the process of buying a gun a little more tedious and strict as to keep out all the people in the United States that would do more harm with a gun than good. In defense to this claim as well, studies have shown that guns are rarely used for self-defense. Between the years 2007 and 2011, there were 29,618,300 violent crimes committed and out of these crimes, less than 1% of victims protected themselves with a firearm (ProCon). 

With the aid of several studies, multiple statistics, and numerous facts, I hope it is clear why America needs more gun control. According to President Obama's knowledge, "There is a gun for roughly every man, woman, and child in America" and if you know how many people are in America, this number is outstanding (Carroll). It is to my greatest concern for those who agree that more guns and less legislation on guns will make America a safer place. I do agree that guns can be used in a good way when it comes to hunting, fun recreational activities and protecting yourself or your family but there must be a limit somewhere. Guns are lethal weapons and most certainly do not belong in the hands of just anyone. It takes a responsible, knowledgeable, and mature adult to know how to properly use a gun and use it in ways that will not do harm to any other humans. With more gun control laws, America will become a safer environment where everyone always feels protected and secure whenever they step outside.

