There Is No Magic Wand For Gun Control

The terrible tragedy that recently occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. has seemingly divided much of the country in terms of their opinions of what is becoming an increasingly touchy subject—gun control.

From Washington, to the broadcast news shows, to Facebook news feeds, it seems everyone as of late has been weighing in with their supposed solutions to prevent another tragedy.

President Barack Obama has vowed to take action, likely in the form of the return of an assault weapons ban like the one that was active from 1994 to 2004, but is this really an effective strategy to curb such violence from occurring again?

Obviously, guns make it easier for a deranged person to commit such atrocities; I don’t think any pro-gunner would dare argue that. But, one thing the anti-gun folks need to understand is that the problem does not lie with the weapons themselves, but with the aforementioned deranged individual using them.

Sure, we could use an overhaul in the regulations regarding firearms, thus making it harder for people with evil intents to obtain such an arsenal, but any sort of ban is an exercise in futility.

Does the average person really need an AK-47 with a 100-round drum? Maybe not, but the fact is guns are already out there, millions of them, both legally and illegally owned. To my knowledge, there exists no magic wand which, upon the signing of legislation, will make every gun in this country instantly vanish.

So what exactly would a ban do? Legal owners of these weapons would likely be grandfathered in, as they would under the bill enacted in the 90’s.

Even if there were to be a mandatory surrendering of these weapons—which would never happen—it would only be the legal arms that are taken away from the law-abiding citizens who possess them. Criminals, by definition, have no regard for the law.

I don’t think it takes much imagination to realize disarming your law-abiding civilian population, while leaving evildoers armed to the teeth, is a bad idea.

I’ll agree something needs to be done in this country. It should be harder to acquire such weapons, tighter background checks and mental profiles should be mandatory.

But will this prevent massacres from occurring in the future? They may limit the frequency of occurrence, but I fear there will always be a tragedy waiting to happen.

So, as long as there is the possibility that I, or someone I love, or any innocent fellow human being could come under siege from a psychotic shooter, I would at least like the ability to fire back.