Vic Chen, Freshman

125 mass shootings in the span of 95 days. This sounds like a sentence straight out of a dystopian novel, but it is the reality of the modern United States.

According to USA Facts, 45,222 people died due to firearms in 2020, an almost 30% increase in the amount of firearm deaths from 2010. The drastic amount of deaths due to guns has brought up a debate among people of all political opinions on what the best solution is for the firearm death problem.

On the more conservative side, the true issue behind this problem has been the person using the gun. Conservatives see guns as a tool, one that can both save people but also cause harm upon them. Business Insider explains that, “Conservatives argue that because criminals have ready access to guns then it’s only fair to even the odds for potential victims by permitting them to own them, too.” In the view of the right, the damage guns cause depends entirely upon the user.

On the more liberal side, people view guns as the true issue, and without guns, mass shootings would then obviously not happen. The Medium explains the liberal view on guns as “Stricter gun control laws will protect our communities from gun violence.” However, which side of the debate is backed up by science?

On Jan. 7, 2023, a first grader at Richneck Elementary School fired a gun at his teacher, hospitalizing her. In no circumstance, should a child as young as six obtain a weapon that could kill someone. However, the ease to obtain guns in the United States has made it possible for children to get access to firearms. So how can we solve this problem?

The solution to this issue is gun control. Gun control has proved to be successful in limiting the severity of many firearm-related problems. According to the Rand Corporation, policies regarding who could buy guns have proved to help with problems such as suicide, violent crime, and unintentional injuries and deaths. All of these problems were proven to be helped by gun control policies by two or more studies.

There is no denying that guns are an issue in our reality. However, the way to solve this problem is to limit the use of what is causing the damage. Gun control is a necessity to help resolve all of our firearm-related issues and create a safer America.