Throughout the past century, the debate over gun control has stirred a yelling match between lawmakers and the community. Since the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in 2012, there has been over 237 school shootings (Patel), an alarming number considering only six years have passed. In many of these shootings, the person behind the gun has had a history of violent behavior or suffers from a mental illness. These people were able to easily obtain assault weapons, even with the existing background checks. Because background checks do not test one’s mental stability, current background checks need to be replaced by stricter and holistic system.
Buying guns did not always require background checks. Anyone who wished to buy a gun was eligible
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Whenever the conversation comes up, they defend their claim by stating that it is their second amendment right to own guns. When our Founding Fathers passed this law, the guns they were using only fired two bullets per minute and were not being used to murder students in school. Guns were once used to “protect people from violent crimes and attacks,” now we have police to do the job for us. Regular people aren’t as trained as the professionals therefore many accidents occur which result in deaths. The same people who oppose gun control laws say that “guns are not the only way people can kill people,” which is true but guns are the most effective way of killing, so by restricting who buys a gun and who doesn’t will significantly decrease the total number of deaths in the United …show more content…
By making existing criminal background checks more rigorous, gun-related violence can be reduced and possibly prevented. According to studies made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 50% of suicides are committed with firearms (CDC). Gun-related suicides would significantly decrease once a mental health evaluation is required to purchase a gun. Between 1999 and 2013, for 14 consecutive years, firearms were listed as the number 12 cause of all deaths in the United States (CDC). By providing the buyers' violent history, gun violence such as robberies, assault and rapes would not occur as often as they tend to happen (Desuka). By requiring both a mental evaluation and a violent history check, the number of school shootings, as well as mass shootings, will drastically decrease. Stricter gun control laws need to be passed in order to make the US a safer