Just in the past 10 years, the total number of deaths have tolled to the nerve-shaking number of 318,522 deaths including our current year of 2018. For the past 10 years, citizens of America have been trying to reign in certain gun laws that have gotten completely out of hand. Yet, in these 10 years nothing has been done by the government or the real people responsible; the NRA. But, that is about to change. Since the Florida shooting on February 14, citizens both minors and adults, are sick of being terrified that wherever they go is no longer safe, because a shooting could break out at any given moment. As we have seen, they have had enough. Haven’t we all?

During our research on this issue, we have found the disturbing fact that between 1955 and 1975, the Vietnam War killed over 58,000 American soldiers – less than the number of civilians killed with guns in the U.S. in an average two-year period. This is incredibly revolting due to the fact that the Vietnam War lasted 19 years and 180 days and killed 58,000 American soldiers, and yet within an average two-year period, the number of civilians killed with guns skyrockets past those casualties. Feel disgusted yet? We’re not even close to finished.

On average, in the years 2005-2010, 33 gun homicides were committed almost every day. In 2010, firearms were used in the U.S. for 19,392 suicides, constituting to almost 62% of all gun deaths. Guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings in 2010 as well. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths every day and more than three deaths every hour. Not to forget the bone-chilling fact, 2,549 children (age 0 to 19 years) died by gunshot and an additional 13,576 were injured in 2014.
After one of the most current school shootings in U.S. history, President Trump and his team of lawmakers have come up with some ideas of proposals against gun violence. One of which was actually accepted by the Senate of Florida, Lauren Book. The first of these many proposals involve the training and arming of school teachers in case another school shooting were to happen. According to President Trump, what he claims is that if a ”sicko shooter” were to come to a school as a threat, he would have to think through his decision knowing that teachers are armed and trained to defend their students and staff (Trump). This proposal has actually been taken into consideration or in action in some states like Ohio and other school districts, where they have trained their teachers and staff for school shooting scenarios (FoxNews.com).

Another thing that both Trump and his lawmakers have proposed is to develop more effective background checks for people who plan on buying firearms. By doing this, they believe that it will become more difficult for those who either buy guns from unlicensed sellers and also for people who just choose to not complete the background check process altogether. Another proposal that was made after the Florida shooting, was the idea of banning bump-stocks for semi-automatic weapons. Basically, a bump stock is a type of device that you would apply on your semi-automatic weapon so that it would essentially become a semiautomatic weapon. In other words, bump stocks are used so that guns can fire more rounds of ammunition without firing it manually (FoxNews.com).

Similarly, another proposal that was made also has to do with the reduction of the mechanics of a gun. Now with this specific proposal has to within regards to high capacity magazines for semi-automatic weapons. In other words, if this proposal were to happen it would reduce the amount of ammunition that could be stored in a gun. Lastly, another proposal that both Trump and his lawmakers have created is to raise the age limit for purchasing guns to the age of 21. By raising the age limit, they believe that it will be more difficult for those who are not legally eligible or responsible to purchase firearms (FoxNews.com).

Giffords Law Center states “Federal law prohibits the possession of a handgun or handgun ammunition by any person under the age of 18. Federal law provides no minimum age for the possession of long guns or long gun ammunition.” However shocking evidence was found on the site, Business Insider wrote an article how a 13-year-old boy was unable to buy cigarettes, beer, porn magazines, and even lottery tickets because he wasn’t of age. However, when going into a gun shop, he legally buys a .22 caliber rifle within as little as 10 minutes. This was a social experiment in 2016, that was recorded and the video went viral in just a few days.

The AR-15 is one of the most popular guns in America and is recognized as “America’s Rifle”. AR-15’s are relatively cheap and are very easy to use, they’re light, have low recoil and are easily customizable. This gun has shown up consistently in shootings and we begin to see why as we find that the AR-15 is a close to military grade weapon. The NRA calls them “legos for adults”, emphasizing how easy it is for gun owners and anyone else to use the gun. Although it is known nationwide, it is still increasing in popularity, meaning that even more people will be buying a firearm (tampabay.com).

In conclusion, we see that gun safety is something that our government is not doing their job on. Children with bright futures, dead within the single pull of a trigger because gun ownership has gotten completely and utterly out of control. A father in Florida turned in his AR-15 to the police department because he did “not need it for anything in particular”. He brings up how he has children of his own the sight of the gun that took away so many children away from their parents recently, sickened him. We then shockingly find out that he had contacted someone through online and met them in a parking lot, and bought the AR-15. Surprisingly, this was entirely legal. Now imagine this being a young child, either with a mental disability mind related, a horrific past, or just purely sadistic, purchasing an AR-15, which could one day be the barrel pressed against your child’s temple. All of us just hope, it never has to come to that day, for you to realize how harmful these weapons can really be without proper restrictions.