Lately talk of political issues has been on the rise, one of which is gun control. There are two main sides to this debate. The first being the far left belief that guns should be outright prohibited, and the second being the far right belief that the purchase/ownership of guns should in no way have any restrictions. Here’s why both of these sides need to just reach a happy medium.

      Over the years, gun violence in the USA has been on the rise. Liberals propose handling this by completely restricting people’s right to own and purchase guns. Not only is this a violation of the second amendment – which gives people the right to bear arms – but in the long run not is not helpful. 

      A particular idea offered by most leftists is to create a weapons ban. Sadly, most people know that a majority of shootings actually happen in places with gun restrictions and bans, schools being a prime example. While in certain places a ban makes sense, some promote the idea that guns should be taken from everyone everywhere. Now, from a logical standpoint this simply is not smart. If someone wants to shoot up a school, they are going to carry in a gun illegally no matter what anti-gun rules are in place. However, if no armed police officers are in the area, there is no one to take down a threat. Banning guns will not completely save lives and will completely infringe on the second amendment.

      Fortunately, a solution to this is lies in creating both more strict background checks and gun laws. Unfortunately, this angers the other side of the argument, the far right. These people argue that the input of these laws would be an infringement of their Second Amendment rights but that just isn’t true. 

      The definition of infringe is as follows: “to actively break the terms of a law, agreement, or etc.” To impose tighter regulations around the process of obtaining a gun is not breaking the law. All dealers, including those at gun shows or private individuals should run extensive background checks. You are not being denied the right to own a firearm. All that is happening is an attempt to uphold a safer process to avoid letting guns get to bad people. 

      People are right to stand up for their right to own a gun, there are absolutely positive reasons to own a gun. If you like to hunt for example. Maybe you keep a gun in a safe to protect yourself from possible criminal activity. The bottom line is, not all guns are used to commit crimes. People are also right to question the system. The fact that so many shootings have happened in recent years and somehow these people got guns or got into areas with their guns is a terrible oversight. It shows there is very obviously an issue. 

      The important thing to remember is that since guns are inanimate objects, they have to have someone to pull the trigger. This gives way to the idea that maybe the problem lies with humans, and that guns can save lives in the right hands just as much as take lives in the wrong hands.