In American society today, gun violence and control seems to be a constantly ever increasing and controversial issue that the United States cannot get a hold on. In 2023 alone, there have been over 470 mass shootings, with 49 of them being school shootings, throughout the United States. 83 million of the 331 million citizens, around 25 percent, of the United States own a minimum of one firearm. The Second Amendment does give citizens the right to bear arms, but the government contrastingly has many laws on gun control and preventing gun violence. These are both still very serious issues we see today, whether hat be from shootings in schools, homicide, suicide, hostage situations, or domestic violence. Looking through these past examples, it can be determined that the issue is not guns, it is the people who are using them for criminal purposes.
In Mississippi, a person must be of 21 years of age or older to be able to purchase a firearm. Mississippi is a permitless carry, shall issue state with concealed weapons permits. There is no permit, background check, or firearms registration necessary when buying a handgun from a private seller. Open carry is completely legal in Mississippi for anyone if the firearm is carried in a scabbard, holster, or sheath that is at least partially visible to others. In Mississippi guns are absolutely not allowed in any schools or in bars. This state also has a gun violence
rate of 33.9 per 100k citizens, far above the current national average.
While many will argue that there should be stricter laws on guns to prevent gun violence, this will not do much to solve the issue of violence itself across the United States. The unfortunate truth is that evil will always exist, and therefore violence will always occur so long as evil exists. Guns are not the problem, people who use
them for nefarious purposes are.
“Firearms are instruments, much like hammers and pencils. It would not make sense to blame the hammer for slipping and hitting your thumb while you are hanging a painting, or to blame the pencil for making a mistake in
writing a word,” world champion sharpshooter and 2021 OHS graduate Neal Norman said. “Guns are tools. Do not blame the tool. Instead, place responsibility on the person who used it.”
On August 28, 2023, there was a university shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The shooter, Tailei Qi, killed an associate professor named Zijie Yan, who worked in the Department of Applied Physical Science, a little after 1:00 p.m. with a 9 millimeter handgun on the UNC campus that day. Addison Hunt, a recent graduate of Oxford High School, was on the UNC campus for her new classes the
day of the shooting, only around a five minute walk away from where the shooting took place.
“I just sent my parents the alert about the shooter, said I love you, and then tried to call them,” Hunt said. “My mom eventually answered and she stayed on the phone with me while I sat on the
floor for about an hour. She was calming me down as I was crying on the floor.”
North Carolina does have varying laws on gun violence and control compared to the state of Mississippi. Mississippi is currently ranked #50 in the nation in regards to gun law strength, while North Carolina sits far higher at #21. While the investigation and trial for Qi are still in progress, this shooting shows many examples of the extremely detrimental mental effects that victims of gun violence can experience after the traumatizing event.
Effects can include depression, anxiety, PTSD, and many others. Lots of survivors report
increased fear, psychological distress, agitation, sleep disturbances, and some will even refuse to leave the safety of their home for a while. Hunt believes that the shooting had a significant mental effect on her.
“We were all kind of shaken up,” Hunt said. “I was shaking because my fight or flight was still on from being stuck for so long. I was shaky and uneasy for three days.”
While there is a belief that harsher gun laws, control, and
punishments would fix the constant issue of gun violence in the United States today, this is simply not the case. By taking away many people’s rights to own guns and making it difficult for a normal person to register for a gun makes it far harder for a person to protect themselves with a firearm. By taking away the ability for citizens to buy guns we may stop gun violence, but we will hinder people from being able to protect themselves with guns for whatever reasons they need.
“I use firearms to ensure my protection and the protection of the people that I love,” Norman said. “Ownership and use of firearms require a massive responsibility that takes utmost care and respect. People who own guns and train with them tend to be much more careful with them and have much more respect for the power they have.”
Gun violence is a major problem in America today, it is a simple fact. This issue is not caused by guns however, it is caused by the people wielding them with the intention to cause harm or possibly death to other citizens. Laws hindering the ability to buy guns for people will only cause victims of crimes to go unprotected.
In order to stop gun violence, the government should look to have higher punishments for those who commit gun violence crimes, or to create further checks when a person is buying a gun to be as sure as possible that a person doesn’t have bad intentions. However, evil will always exist, and so long as evil exists in humanity, so will violence such as mass shootings that we see today.
“I believe that gun violence and gun control are both huge issues in America today,” Norman said. “Hypothetically speaking, if all guns were to disappear overnight, there would still be a violence issue. Guns are not the issue, violence is. There will always be evil somewhere in the world. If there were no guns, evil people would use other means to cause harm to others.”
