Guns don’t think
November 4, 2015
The intruder breaks through the door. He begins raining bullets on the innocent children. They hide behind desks as blood soaks the floor. Finally, the police arrive, and one final shot ends the nightmare.
As the tragedy in Oregon unfolded, Democrats and Republicans called for a change in policy to “fix” these issues. Some people claim that an increase in gun control can stop these tragedies.
However, as some Republican presidential candidates have said, the issue is not the guns. The issue is the people. Guns do not kill people. People kill people.
Granted, we will not be able to stop every attack on students, but they can be decreased by catching aggressive and threatening behaviors early. Young adults who store up weapons and write letters about killing people are not safe for society. They do not need to go to prison, but should be given appropriate treatment for their illnesses.
Mental health treatment must improve, not the ability of Big Brother to watch how you use a gun. The majority of sane people have guns to protect themselves and their families, not to use in mass shootings.
People who grow up around guns understand that they are deadly weapons that should not be used on people. They are used for hunting, not shooting at innocent kids. My family owns guns, and I understand that they are not toys to be played with.
Mass shooters feel that it is fun to be publicized by shooting children and have tendencies to show dangerous behavior before they commit the atrocious crime.
What is absurd is the thought that gun free zones will keep out murders and mass shooters. If I were a gunman, I would go to the place with the least amount of resistance: gun-free zones. However, if there a chance that a concealed weapon is present or armed officers are near, gunman will be stopped sooner and less likely to succeed.
Murderous behaviors need to be caught early and not ignored. Mental illnesses exist in the United States, just like cancer or heart disease do. Like cancer or heart disease, they must be treated. You can’t cure it, but you can prevent it.
The gun-phobics, on the other hand, advocate for increased gun control and would much rather just ignore it and claim it is Republicans’ fault when attacks happen in gun free zones. If I can remember right, Republicans are the ones arguing to protect the innocent, not leave them like sitting ducks.
We can help people with mental illnesses. We can lower the chance of school shootings. But we do not need more government oversight over a problem they cannot fix. We need to realize that humans pull the trigger, not the guns themselves.
Hailey D. • Dec 10, 2015 at 5:44 pm
I see where your argument was going for your article, but I have to disagree for several reasons. Mental illness is not the sole reason for mass shootings, speaking as a mentally ill person and a friend of other mentally ill people, and even though I realize there are dangerous mentally ill people out there, you have no right to accuse us, and only us of being so evil, which only feeds into the stereotype of the “dangerous” mentally ill person, and no mental illness cannot always be prevented. Please, next time you try to argue on the side of Pro-guns, don’t use the mentally ill excuse.