Gun control: a problem or a solution?

Last Tuesday a gunman walked into Reynolds High School near Portland (Oregon) with a rifle and shot a student to death before he was later found dead. This is the third outbreak of gun violence to shake a U.S. high school or college campus in less than three weeks. Last week, a man opened fire at Seattle Pacific University killing a 19-year-old freshman, Paul Lee, and inuring other 2 students. And on the 23^rd of May, a man killed 6 people and wounded 7 more in Santa Barbara, California.

Photograph retrieved from: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/the-nra-used-to-support-gun-control-adam-winkler-1.3865217

The incident in Oregon was the 74^th school shooting in the U.S. since the December 2012 shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the U.S. about 1 out of every 4.5 million school kids between the ages of 5 and 18 dies from homicide each year at school or getting there and back, . That works out to about 10 to 30 kids a year, or about 1% of all kids who die from homicide.

The U.S.A. has more guns than any other industrialized nation, is it just a matter of personal security? Some people argue that they don’t expect the police to defend themselves because by the time they call the police, it’s too late. Therefore thy obtain guns for self-defence. This creates a vicious cycle: thief or criminal in America carries a gun because he doesn’t know if the other person (eg. owner of the house) has a gun. As Mr. Ryan Turner, president of Democrats Abroad Madrid, said in an interview: “So when someone enters your house, you are very scared because you think they carry a gun. Here in Europe in general, it might not cross our mind that the burglar has a AK47 Kalashnikov. Usually burglars are quick and they don’t normally use violence”

On the 10^th of June 2014, Obama showed his concern regarding the issue of guns’ control inside his country by saying: “My biggest frustration so far is the fact that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who can do just unbelievable damage”

As response to the slaughter in Newtown, Connecticut, Barack Obama threw on January 16^th (2013) the major offer on the control of weapon of the last two decades. The legislative offers were destined to avoid that the weapon comes to inadequate hands, to prohibit the sale of the weapon, to increase the safety in the schools and to improve the services of mental health.The legislative offers had three fundamental changes: to prohibit the rifles of assault, to limit the number of bullets in the loaders, and to extend the control of the precedents for all the transactions of weapons.However, when the legislation came to the Senate in April, it failed to get the 60 votes needed and all Obama’s major initiatives, including the background checks, were defeated and have remained stalled ever since. Nevertheless, The American president promised, that “sooner or later” a more strict legislation would be achieved for the control of weapon.

In our opinion, gun regulation must be stricter. We think the United States has already suffered for a lot of murders and something must be changed in order to prevent those shootings from happening again. We don’t argue against the Second Amendment which gives you the right of owning a gun, we consider that as well as other products and services, guns must follow some kind of control, regulations and limitations. We think the government should try and not be influence by powerful lobbies such as the NRA and try to create pieces of legislation that protects the citizens of the U.S.A.


Paula Padrino Vilela