The first ever school shooting was the Pontiac’s Rebellion school massacre of July 26, 1764.  Yet still, in 2020, we witness 5.6 in 100,000 kids from 1 – 19 getting killed by guns says an article by NPR.  For context, that’s .6 more kids than car crashes.   Knowing now just how deadly this problem is, whats the solution?  It’s my opinion that the solution lies within the legal system but what does everyone else believe?  I am here to answer those questions.

In Florida, there are very few if any laws stopping one from acquiring a weapon apart from age and past incarceration.  Regardless of my home life, grades in school, and actions I can acquire a weapon of mass destruction.  I don’t even need a permit to carry one in public spaces.  With so much access to guns about 185 children, a year are killed and 2,724 people have been killed in total.  So, to solve gun violence in America it’s my belief that we need intense background checks to gain a full summary of one’s life.  By doing this we can recognize not to give guns to someone who has been abused or is the abuser.  Guns don’t kill people, crazy people with guns kill people so what we need to do is to take the guns out of the hands of the danger.  This won’t be the first time that gun laws have worked though.  Take Canada who have, made it illegal in most everywhere, to own and operate a fully automatic gun or a shotgun with a sawed-off barrel.  There is a clear connection between this rule, and the extremely low levels of shootings compared to America.  If we adopt a similar rule set we can ensure a significant drop in gun violence and school shootings and maybe, just maybe we can finally let our kids go to school without fear of death.

Senator John Thune though has a different opinion.  One that speaks more to defending 2nd amendment rights and the usage of guns in daily life.  His argument is that the 2nd amendment is the natural born right of all people in America and that“It is not law-abiding gun owners who are responsible for most of the gun crimes in this country.“ but rather it is the criminals.  He believes in taking down “rouge gun dealers” and not wasting time checking innocent gun dealers.  The trouble with this mindset is that killers are only killers after the act has been committed.  At which point it’s too late.

Gun laws will not be easy to enforce but once in place I feel that the security of our nation will finally be back to safety.