What easy access to guns does to the U.S

When I started school in the United States, I was fairly surprised that one of the initial security drills was on how to protect yourself and your classmates if a school shooting were to happen. It was my first year living in the States and I came from and lived my whole life, in a country where guns weren’t allowed to be owned by everybody. I remember that they told us to use a special gadget to close the door, the lights and the blinds and lay on the floor. They also told us that we should always have heavy material with us in case the attacker was able to open the door so we could defend ourselves. The thought of somebody with a weapon getting near me, scared me. But the thing that surprised me the most is that nobody seemed surprised when the drill started, the kids in my class had done this drill since kindergarten.

Since 1791, weapons, most specifically shotguns, have been available to all of the United States’ citizens for protection purposes, hunting, and recreational uses, such as target shooting. This law is passed in the second amendment of the constitution. The constitution is a document made by the founding fathers after the American Revolution. The constitution has to be followed by all American citizens and nobody is above the law. This means that the second amendment, which is to have the right to bear arms, includes all American citizens.

As mentioned before, this law was passed right after the American Revolution. This means that the founding fathers and the American citizens felt the need to be able to protect themselves after the traumatic war between the 13 colonies and Britain. For many people this made sense in the 1790s, but a lot of people today have different opinions on guns being open to everybody. Normally the people who believe in owning weapons are right wing, but there can always be left wing people who believe that owning guns are to protect themselves and their families.

Lately, gun violence has been appearing more and more in the States. Gun usage has been used against others normally without a reason to, and more that a hundred people die due to gun violence every day. Gun violence is usually more common in suicides and murders. In 2020 54% of gun-deaths were suicides with a total number of 24,292 people while 43% of gun-death were murders with a total of 19,384 deaths.

School shootings and mass shootings have also played a big part in this serious topic. School shootings have been occurring in K-12 public and private schools, as well as colleges and universities, and school buses. A school shooting that was talked a lot about in the United States was the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. An eighteen year old man called Salvador Ramos, fatally shot nineteen children, two teachers, and wounded seventeen others. This shooting is the the first deadliest shooting in Texas and third deadliest school shooting in the United States, after the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and also the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

Mass shootings are also really common in the U.S. Mass shootings are injuries by guns and there have to be four or more people shot (injured or killed), not including the shooter. These shootings have to happen in a single incident, at the same general time and location. For example, mass shootings can happen in a supermarket or caused by the police. The United States has a high rate of homicide 26 times higher than other high income countries. These mass shootings are caused because people have easy access to guns. Most of those people are untrained and that makes it even more dangerous to themselves and to people around them.

In my opinion, access to guns should be regulated in many states. They should require specific validation to have access to a gun rather than only caring about that persons’ age, and a valid ID. Gun stores should sell a gun when they know for sure that the person who is trying to buy it doesn’t have any mental health issues and that they haven't had bad experiences with guns. Gun stores don’t know who they are selling those weapons to and that can be extremely dangerous because you don’t know if that person is mentaly ill.