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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors on The Rocket opinion pages do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of The Rocket or The Rocket staff
There have been more mass shootings than days so far in this year, and some of you still want fewer regulations on guns. I don’t get it. Most of the time I can put my political affiliations aside and at least understand from where people with whom I disagree are coming, but I’m sick of trying to justify why you are okay with people dying because you can’t bear the thought of not taking your gun into a Walmart. The recent shooting in San Bernardino is the deadliest shooting since 20 children and six faculty members were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I do have to wonder why 20 dead children weren’t enough to settle the debate concerning gun regulations.
Believe it or not, I used to be a staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment, but I don’t understand how anyone can still argue for less gun control, or even keeping the current regulations in place for that matter is a good idea. I know there are a multitude of valid arguments for less gun control, but they become invalid when the Gun Violence Archive reports that over 24,000 people have been injured in mass shootings this year. They become invalid when the Washington Post reports that there are more mass shootings than there have been days in the year. They become invalid when over 12,000 people have been killed with firearms in 2015 alone. I know despite all these numbers many people still have a million reasons to ward off gun control legislation, the one I hear the most often being that criminals rarely obtain guns legally anyway, right? Well, there is a lot of evidence pointing to the contrary: according to the New York Times, every single shooter of the last 15 mass shootings obtained their gun(s) legally. So how many of those could have been prevented by stronger gun control?
This is not a liberal or conservative issue, this is a life or death issue. Despite what a bevy of politicians and presidential candidates seem to believe, prayers aren’t going to fix this. Praying after a tragedy isn’t going to undo the damage, but supporting legislation that prevents firearms from being so readily available might.
