OC HIGH / Student News and Views : MY TURN

Should America have laws restricting gun sales? The answer is yes. Guns are objects of violence, created by humans beings to take the life from other beings.

Guns enable any person to hold, in his or her hand, the power to end someone’s existence forever. Humans were not meant to make that kind of decision, to have that kind of choice at their fingertips, to end lives at their fancy. But guns let people do just that.

Violence has become an epidemic that has swept our nation. Brutal crimes occur in every city, every day. The real question is, why don’t we already have gun control? Why is it that anyone can go out and buy a gun? Is America so obsessed with the “rights of the people” that any person is allowed to go out and kill another person?

Of course not. Then why are guns so readily available throughout our nation? Guns are not essential for daily living. The most common reason for buying a gun is for protection. If there were fewer guns in the first place, people wouldn’t have to arm themselves in defense.

The violence has even spread to our schools. Last year, there were thousands of incidents in the United States of students taking weapons to school. Kids. Not young adults or even adolescents, but children.

Schoolchildren should not have in their hands the means for slaying their classmates over simple disputes. In the past, a fistfight would have ended the quarrel; now a gun is the solution. Imagine what would happen if students shot each other every time there was a disagreement. No one would be left to attend class. Metal detectors, anyone? Hopefully, gun control would prevent firearms from ever reaching children.

America has become infamous throughout the world for its violence. Is it because Americans are more naturally violent and savage? No. It’s because America is one of few nations where guns are free for all to own. Restricting the sales of both guns and bullets would be a great step toward ending violence. Gun control would be an effective method for diminishing violence because it would take away the object that gives someone the ability to kill with ease: the gun.

Unfortunately, gun control won’t stop all the violence in our cities.

The real solution is to find the roots of violence and eradicate them. That would call for an end to racism, poverty and hate. Only in an utopian society can all violence truly be eliminated.

But while we’re waiting, the least we can do is begin to reduce violence by implementing gun control.