Stricter Gun Laws Needed

This isn’t the first time you’ve seen this and sadly it won’t be the last, but seriously: when the hell are we going to do something about guns? I admit my opinion on guns and gun control is skewed as I’m from liberal Los Angeles, where guns are few and far between, at least to my knowledge. My family doesn’t hunt or skeet shoot or whatever else you can do with guns. I have had exactly two encounters with guns: the first was at age seven when I found my grandfather’s gun that he said was for shooting the squirrels and rabbits that ate their way through the garden. The second was when my brother chased me up a tree by shooting a BB gun at me. Both of these left me with a solid understanding that guns are stupid and unnecessary. That was before the shootings at Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Santa Barbara or Umpqua Community College in Oregon.

I love the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The fact that our Founding Fathers could write such a document that remains, for the most part, pertinent to America over 200 years later is nothing short of genius. That being said, the Constitution is subject to change. Women can vote, no one is counted as 3/5ths of a person and people cannot own other people. In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the Constitution should be revised every 19 to 20 years because governments must adapt to survive. I am not trying to restrict freedoms or natural liberties when I say we should get rid of the Second Amendment; I am saying that it’s outdated. This liberty of owning a gun has resulted in the death of innocent people at the hands of freedom-loving, gun-toting, arms-bearing people with a personal armory.

We’re living in a barbarically dystopian world in which politicians are focused on defunding Planned Parenthood locations while defending guns–I’m looking at you, Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush! I am so horrified by guns as a whole that it would be near impossible to convince me of a good reason to have one. I think hunting is stupid and a good home security and alarm system is smarter and safer than a gun in the house. 

It’s kind of ironic that all these people who own guns for “self-defense” have yet to stop an active shooter. In a true emergency, no civilian uses a gun for the good of the people. Where do they keep their guns? In a safe at home? Will that be useful if there is a home invasion? “Hold up, Mr. Burglar, I’m going to go grab my gun, please don’t do anything bad, I’m just going to get it for self-defense!”

I’m out of my depth in the gun conversation. I find arguments for the ownership of guns ridiculous. Ian Mercer, the father of UCC shooter Chris Harper-Mercer, told CNN that if his son had not been able to easily acquire 13 guns, the shooting would not have happened. Mr. Mercer acknowledged his son’s mental health as a large factor in the shooting but also spoke to the wider problem of weak gun control:

“Even people that believe in the right to bear arms, what right do you have to take other people’s lives?”