The gun debate is a long and tumultuous argument, involving all sorts of name calling and people putting their fingers in their ears. Nothing I can type here, say on stage there or pound out in Morse code using a drum kit whilst on the city bus system will change minds about this debate. By this point, everyone who has chosen a side will stick to their side.

In light of this, I am going to tell you my opinion on the gun debate, because I can.

Guns need to be better regulated and controlled than they are now.

I’ll wait a moment for the anger and/or nodding to stop.

…

Ok then.

Most gun owners are sane, sensible people who understand very well just how dangerous a gun is. It is a weapon, a tool with one purpose, one job: to kill. To point a gun at anyone or anything is to declare to the world that you are willing to kill them. There is no ‘wounding’ a person, no ‘nonlethal shooting’. If you point a gun and fire, you are willing to kill them. 

Most gun owners are aware of this. They are deeply aware of this. Go to a gun range, dear reader, and disobey basic gun safety, like twirling pistols, or pointing guns in people’s faces and making pew-pew noises. See the fear that these people have? Observe, if you will, the sheer apocalyptic rage on the faces of the staff and owners of the gun range. Take careful note how the staff and clientele will try to take your guns away from you, and several people have their own guns at attention, ready to mow down the dangerous idiot before they kill someone. These kindly folks whom you have decided to make angry/terrified are well aware of how your playful screwing around could hurt everyone around you. These responsible people, who would never dream of hurting anyone who wasn’t about to seriously hurt them first, are indicative of the vast majority of gun owners in the United States.

But then there are the madmen, the criminals and the monsters.

The people who would not hesitate to blow away the innocent. Those who would walk into an elementary school and kill the students, the children, inside. 

We live in a country filled with massacres. Shootings happen so often that we typically do not even hear about them on the news. Only the truly large or horrifying get any press coverage anymore, and we move on and forget them within the month. This is the country we live in. This is the country children die in.

As one may be able to tell from the two, more playful paragraphs above, I am not in favor of taking away everyone’s guns, but we must have better regulations and better background checks. And, yes, we must be willing to seize guns from those who fail these checks or have mental health problems. 

The problem has been proved to exist. People are willing to act on their hatred or their delusions and kill people en masse. This epidemic must end. This horror must stop. 

Better gun regulation will go a long way toward helping stop this. It will go a long way towards saving lives.