Las Vegas festival shooting: 58 dead, 546 injured. A child’s accidental death due to a parent’s loaded firearm. Both of these have something in common: lax gun control.

With all of these tragic events happening the public is left wondering why something isn’t being done to stop more from occurring.

“Every time this happens, the ripple effect gets larger,” Columbine school shooting survivor Austin Banks said in an interview by Lois Beckett and Jamiles Lartey. “I don’t think we have a five-year or a 10-year solution. I think we’re looking at a 25-year solution.”

I believe that this accessibility of guns, so easy that teenagers could get them, is an issue that must be dealt with effectively. As shown this issue cannot be solved easily or quickly. It must be consistently pursued and worked on to try and create a safer United States.

Many of these gun deaths in the U.S. are preventable accidents.

Innocent children’s deaths in homes because of parent with a gun, teenagers being irresponsible and risky with their guardians weapons. Countless heart-wrenching accounts of death by household firearms are another reason I believe we need stricter, more enforced gun control.

“For many adults who own guns, exposure to guns happened at an early age,” the Pew Research Center of Social and Demographic trends cited. “About two-thirds of current gun owners (67%) say there were guns in their household growing up, and 76% report that they first fired a gun before they were 18.”

With the percentages of mass shootings going up, it is important to take a look at how households are raising their kids in recent years. With this early exposure to guns it not only brings possibilities of gun related accidents in the home, yet also seeing the use of or need for guns as normal.

With more than 500 killed already in 2017 because of mass shootings, it is important to educate the youth on gun control and safety. If the owning of guns becomes this normalized it may lead to more normalization of shootings.

More enforced gun control is an essential step in the stopping of risky upbringings that may lead to dangerous situations.

“Whether a state has a large capacity ammunition magazine ban is the single best predictor of the mass shooting rate in that state,” an experiment and analysis by the Stanford Geospatial Center and Library and concluded by community health science professor at Boston University, Michael Siegel, cited.  

This study although only showing correlation not strict causation, is still showcasing dangerous factors in mass shootings. I feel that a correlation is an important enough component to call for a change in our current gun control laws.

If one can see that an element of something is causing risk and possible death to innocent people, then why are people still so nonchalant and stubborn about owning guns?

Many cases of bans on certain aspects of guns have been shown to bring about counter arguments of going against the second amendment. People view most gun restrictions as being unconstitutional and against their freedoms as citizens. Many state the reason of needing a gun as needing protection which is an understandable argument.

While I believe that we need stricter gun laws, it does not mean a ban on all arms.

The problem and need for protection can still be solved, yet with a more extensive process of earning the right to owning a gun. These countless tragic events should be the call to action that the United States needs to enforce a stricter law over obtaining guns.