Gun Control

A recent incident by a student named Jayden Freyberg, age 15, opened fire upon group of friends in a high school cafeteria north of Seattle on Friday October 24, killing at least four students and wounding four other students, officials said. The gunman also died at the scene of a self-inflicted wound. We live in a culture where kids believe that shooting people is an acceptable way of dealing with anger, rage, disappointment, bullying, break-ups, jealousy, and so on. This raises any number of questions as to why this is so. These incidents have occurred more and more often over the past five (plus) years, implying that suggestibility is playing a very large role for disturbed kids. Teens live in a world of unreality perpetuated by their immaturity, a fundamental misunderstanding of the permanence of death, an inability to appreciate consequences in any realistic manner, and other problems caused by lack of sufficient brain. Nonetheless, they are exposed to incredible amounts of violence on a daily basis and expected to figure out how to solve complex, emotionally-charged problems, often with little guidance from parents who may have little time to guide them and/or be lacking in the skills themselves. It is no wonder they cannot always cope and sometimes explode. When ready access to weapons is added to this volatile mix, tragedy seems almost inevitable. How did this student get access to a gun? It could be belonging to an irresponsible family member or maybe purchased illegally. If this country continues to have no gun control, then we are going to face a very violent and criminal generation. In the United States in the last 30 years, about three-quarters of the guns used were obtained legally by the killers. Pro-gun control advocates believe tougher gun laws could have potentially prevented these crimes. Gun control can protect families from psychotic gun owners. I believe we need a very strong background check (even if privacy needed to be invaded such as by tapping a phone or spying) for every individual who requests to purchase a weapon. Background checks will help keep guns out of the dangerous hands of people who should not have them. Americans for Responsible Solutions supported by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s and her astronaut husband Mark Kelly, advocates for background checks to prevent criminals, domestic abusers, and the seriously mentally ill from buying guns. Since the NICS instant background check system was implemented in 1998, background checks have denied transfers to over 1.7 million prohibited purchasers. Their needs tobe a serious punishment to criminals who misuse guns on innocent people to be a lesson to gun owners, to help prevent future outrageous shooting, and for all Americans to stop living in fear. The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads 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. Buried in the Second Amendment is the right to self-defense, the very mechanism that allowed our Founding Fathers to win freedom from tyranny. Our forefathers wanted us to be able to protect ourselves against outside threats, and even from internal tyranny. They may have even intended us to be able to protect and defend ourselves from each other, but clearly not to attack with and misuse on children, high-school populations and co-workers and law enforcement that could be so easily slaughtered.  We live in a reality.