Guns Should Be Regulated

Regulate Guns

In the United States, we will let almost anyone purchase a gun. We need to regulate these dangerous weapons and provide a safer environment for our citizens. There has been a debate in our government for a long time concerning how and when guns should be regulated. It seems that most people who are against gun control do not care or do not understand that regulating guns is a necessity for safety. If guns were more regulated we would not have as many accidental shootings or planned, deliberate shootings by those with mental health issues.

People who have mental health issues are allowed to purchase weapons and live in houses where there are guns readily available and not under a lock and key. Take a look at the recent Fort Hood shooting, where Ivan Lopez had been receiving mental health help after coming back from a four month tour in Iraq, and he shot eleven people, killing one. Lopez then killed himself, proving how unstable he was. Then there is Adam Lanza. He shot twenty children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He also shot six adults at the school and murdered his mother before he went to the school. Adam Lanza shot himself as well. James Holmes is another mass shooter that had seen three mental health professionals before he killed twelve people in a movie theatre in Colorado. If these people would not have been allowed to purchase guns or be in homes with guns, these shootings would have not been as likely to occur.

Since 1982, there have been sixty-two mass shootings in 2012. Out of those sixty-two, forty-nine of them had legal weapons. In 2011, in Arizona, Jared Loughner open fired at a constituent meeting, killing six and injuring thirteen. He legally obtained the weapons from

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...ety and how to keep our citizens alive and unafraid to leave their homes.

Gun regulation is desperately needed in our country. We would have lower crime rates and lower homicide rates; as well as lower accidental shooting rates. In these times we need to understand that our children will live a destructive and violence-filled future with guns being available to anyone. We as a country need to realize that it is not about taking away our rights, but giving our nation the right to be unafraid of what lurks outside our homes. If we could all agree to tougher and more accurate interrogation of people before they purchase a weapon, maybe we could all feel safer. Until something is done about people with mental issues purchasing weapons and people who are sane locking them away, we will get nowhere. It is crucial that we stop the murder and regulate guns immediately.