Every American has the Right to Gun Ownership

ELEANNA DAVOS ’20
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Let’s just break this down nice and quick for all the “snowflakes” who hate guns, at times hate legal gun owners, and their opinions for their right to bear arms. By the end of 2016, 50,000 Americans died- if you had to guess you would jump to the conclusion saying, “guns killed them.” Let me correct you, last year over 50,000 Americans died from illegal drugs and overdose. In contrast, there were only 15,080 gun related deaths that occurred in 2016, including; mass shootings, home defense and invasion (all legally justified in court), officer involved, teen, and unintentional shootings. Drugs are illegal but clearly those are just as deadly if not more than guns, making the point that legal vs. illegal won’t stop deaths and clearly hasn’t.
The Las Vegas shooting in one way or another has touched each American’s life, and having titled itself as the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history has made headlines everywhere. It has been leading the conversation on how we can prevent further shootings and avoid getting guns into the hands of people who have intentions to use them in inappropriate ways. Believe it or not, being the conservative, gun-supporter I am, surprisingly and contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t make me/us “irrational” and “gun crazed” thinkers. We love this country and just as much want the safety for everyone in it. If the country can’t stop drugs and the continued opioid outbreak which already has been deemed illegal and never stated as a constitutional right, how are government officials and members of the country expected to tackle the issue of gun violence?
Ironically, – the liberal members of society and politicians- who have the most to say about legal gun owners (majority of them with a perfect record and no priors) have proposed no effective policy change that can be implemented. Keeping in mind that at last count, there were approximately 90 million legal gun owners in the U.S. Of those 90 million, 90 percent of criminals committing a gun related crime are not legal gun owners. Having said this, those criminals have either stolen a gun or acquired it from a gun show (where no legal background or security check is required). Meaning in the grand total of gun related crimesless than 1 percent are shootings and crimes by illegal gun owner. A simple start and bipartisan solution would be making gun shows illegal, and removing the “middle man” who through no malicious intention provides unregulated guns (no serial number tied to owner) to people who should never have them in the first place.
Although gun shows currently are covered under the Brady Bill (“Brady Bill loophole”), redacting the terminology in the bill would enable for the removal of gun shows hence limiting the sales of private guns. Although those guns the majority of the time end up in safe hands, there is a greater chance that at-risk people will get those guns from a gun show and potentially commit a crime. By cutting the snakes head off right at gun shows it would only make it harder for those at-risk people to allocate guns.
Gun laws should also be regulated on the federal level and not the current state level- doing so would eliminate the lack of consistency of gun laws and allow for a better regulation of background and security checks. Considering that the federal government has security clearances that state level governments don’t have. The road to protecting our country and our rights are far from over, but the only thing that we can do is stand up proudly for the country we belong to and continue to fight every day and support each person who has been hurt or traumatized by violence.