It’s Time to Wake Up America: That Doesn’t Mean Banning Guns Completely!

Do people kill people, or do guns kill people?
This question has been circulating through social media recently, since the Florida school shooting. It has also sparked a nation-wide debate around the topic of gun control and whether guns should be banned or not.
However, this question is completely irrelevant to the situation or problem at hand. There are many other better questions that could be asked in this debate, such as, why can an 18-year-old buy an AR-15 while to purchase a simple, much less powerful, handgun the person must be at least 21 years of age? An even better question could be, why is it possible to buy an AR-15 at all? This is an issue of law and regulation; Not if a person or the inanimate object is to blame for cold blooded murder.
When comparing the damage of an AR-15 to the damage of a 9mm handgun, there is no contest. “One looks like a grenade went off in there, the other looks like a bad knife cut,” said Peter Rhee, a trauma surgeon at the University of Arizona. Why does anyone need a gun with that much power, unless they intend on hurting someone? I have the answer, they don’t.
The Second Amendment of the U.S Constitution is the right to bear arms. Therefore, it is safe to say we can not just simply ban all firearms in the U.S. However, the United States laws on gun control are too loose and unregulated. This is what the debate should really be about. How can we come up with more laws and regulations that will appease both sides of the conversation?
Here are just a couple:
First off, the AR-15 and similar rifles can cause way more damage than the everyday American needs to have in their household. They are military grade weapons that were made for killing human beings. Due to this reason and many others, there is no reason for the average American citizen to have the ability to purchase such weapons. Some people may argue that they enjoy firing their gun at a gun rage for a hobby. A solution to this problem would be to allow people the ability to rent these weapons from the gun range and use them under close supervision at the range.
Secondly, longer more intense background checks need to be performed on persons who wish to purchase a hunting rifle or hand gun. When I say that the current background check laws are very loose, here are some examples:

1. Guns sold between private parties, person-to-person or at gun shows are exempt from the background-check requirement.
2. If the NICS cannot complete the background check and reach a verdict in three days, the firearm can be sold.
3. Federal law doesn’t require states to submit mental health records to the NICS database. Many states have laws that require records to be shared, but many do not. As a result, mental health records are an incomplete part of the NICS database.
4. If a background check cannot be completed within three days and a verdict isn't reached by the NICS, the firearm can be sold to the applicant.
   These laws sound completely ridiculous when read outload. It is not surprising after reading these laws why so many shootings occur each year: approximately 13,000 per year.
   Finally, there could be a government organization that regularly checks up on registered gun owners to make sure they are still fit enough, both physically and mentally, to handle a fire arm. It could be like registering a car in California. Every year a resident of California must pay to register their car with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Part of the registration process is getting your car smog checked to make sure the pollution levels are acceptable. A gun control organization could do the same thing except instead of a smog check, they could perform a mental health evaluation.
   So, we need to stop blaming the people or the gun and start blaming the people who let them have the gun in the first place. Let’s be flexible and come up with solutions rather than debate whether guns should be banned completely or not. There needs to be benefits for people on both sides of the conversation.
   Wake up America! 96 people are dying from gun violence every single day and there is not being enough done to end this phenomenon.