Gun Control: Disarming America

Sometimes everything is not what it seems. Recently, there have been out-of-the-ordinary instances of death and violence in America that are horrifying to imagine.

Two stories in recent memory dealt with young men who decided to go into crowded areas and kill everyone in sight.

We are familiar with the shootings by now. On July 20 of last year, James Holmes allegedly opened fire on a movie theater of people watching a showing of the movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve people died, and 58 were injured in Colorado.

In an unrelated shooting, Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary of Newton, Conn., shooting 20 children and six adults before committing suicide.

Both shootings happened within a year, and, as a country, these horrifying events should make us think twice about who should be trusted with guns and who shouldn’t.

Recently, President Obama announced 23 executive actions on gun control and asked Congress to pass gun control laws.

From a CNN article on the same day, Obama requested Congress to pass laws that would “require background checks on all gun sales, restore a ban on ‘military-style assault weapons,’ ban gun magazines with capacities of more than 10 rounds and toughen penalties on people who sell guns to those who can’t have them.”

It doesn’t sound unreasonable because people are scared now. The two most recent episodes happened in places most Americans would generally feel safe in; a movie theater and an elementary school.

When it seems unsafe in public places, people don’t want to go there. Furthermore, the public doesn’t want to be forced into their homes, instead placing restrictions on everyone’s rights.

What Obama is asking isn’t too much. If we really can’t handle the responsibility of owning weapons as powerful as some guns are, then we should hold society to a higher standard. It’s also hard to imagine why person needs an assault rifle in their everyday life anyway.

What the Obama administration is asking though, is that we unarm ourselves, taking away what some feel is a right.

Ideas can be as dangerous as guns and the people using them, so we should choose to be objective. We need to look out for the good of the people, whether that is governmental or not.

What if the Sandy Hook shooting was staged to influence public decision? What if everything you thought you knew was a lie?

It sounds extreme and lacks facts to be proven in this editorial, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.