By Zoe Ashe-Jones
Guns are scarily easy to buy. I went to the Walmart website, searched guns, and found almost twenty thousand results. You can add to cart, fill out your address, credit card information, and click order. That’s all it takes to buy a gun in the United States.
School shootings aren’t going to stop unless the US government creates stronger gun control laws. Countries like Australia have banned rapid fire guns like AR-15s to stop gun violence, and they haven’t had a deadly mass shooting since 1996.
Our founding fathers wrote the Constitution in 1787, when the most common weapon were muskets and pistols. According to a February 2018 Time Magazine article, six of the ten most deadly school shootings in the last decade have used AR-15 rifles. Comparing guns of the eighteenth century and guns of today is chilling. An AR-15 can fire 45 rounds per minute. A revolutionary-era musket could fire three.
The second amendment was designed to protect soldiers in the revolutionary war who owned guns in order to fight the british, not to murder children at school. The normalization and gun culture of the United States has contributed to the school shootings. Having guns in homes, shooting ranges, and the portrayal of weapons in video games and TV shows desensitizes people to the danger of guns.
We need better mental healthcare, but we also need to make it harder for people to get guns. You can buy a revolver from Walmart for $68. It comes with two day shipping or you can pick it up in-store today. Thoughts and prayers won’t fix gun violence. Gun control laws and a screening or licensing process for buying a gun will fix gun violence.
You can support the victims of the Feb 14 shooting by donating to one of the many fundraisers in honor of the victims and marching on March 24.
