Staffers debate if gun regulations should be strict or not
February 9, 2016
Guns are dangerous weapons that need to be regulated for the safety of the people
On Jan. 1, Texans were allowed to openly carry handguns in most public places throughout the state.
This new right was the result of gun rights advocates who believe that openly carrying weapons can make themselves and even others around them safer. Supporters of the law passed by the Legislature in 2015 say that openly carrying weapons can also help deter potential mass shootings that have happened frequently across the country this year.
However, not everyone has been happy about seeing weapons openly carried, and some businesses have displayed signs by their doors that explain that openly carrying weapons inside is prohibited. There is going to be confusion and unease if someone sees someone openly carrying a gun in a place where they are not often seen.
It is still illegal to openly carry holstered handguns in some other public places, including schools and certain parts of college campuses. However, legislators also recently passed a “Campus Carry” law that will require state universities to allow people who possess a concealed handgun license the right to carry weapons onto college or university buildings.
There are simply not enough limitations to open carry and campus carry to to ensure that these new rights do not cause even more problems of gun violence in Texas.
For 2015, the numbers of gun deaths are 13,371, and of those, 1,951 are from accidental shootings last year, of which occured from 330 mass shootings.
I think that the more people that possess guns in public will only add on to our problems, and fear that the increasing presence of firearms in life will only lead people to believe that brandishing weapons is the only way to stay safe. With so many cases of mass shootings in recent years it’s understandable that people would be nervous about seeing someone openly carrying a handgun who is not a police officer or working in some other type of law enforcement capacity.
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Gun control creates false safety and infringes on the rights of United States citizens
On Jan. 1, Texas became the 45th state in the nation to allow handguns to be openly carried in the same places where once before could carry a concealed handgun if properly licensed.
Opponents of open carry predicted horror stories of gun nuts walking the streets brandishing weapons in public places.
But now more than a month into the existence of open carry in Texas there has no major shooting incidents or cases of innocent bystanders being terrorized by those who choose to openly carry.
At the end of the day, the argument constantly seems to devolve to a single question: do we need stricter gun control? The simple answer to the question really just involves another question: has gun control actually done anything?
On Tuesday, Jan. 5, President Obama made a call for “sense of urgency” to fight gun violence, and ended his argument for stricter gun control by mention the death of Daniel Barden, who was murdered in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
But as far as we have seen, none of it has made any difference. There have been five shootings in the month of January alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There is no statistical evidence that shows that gun control actually achieves the goals they were set out to achieve. Instead, it makes it harder for people who follow the law to purchase guns to protect themselves.
The effects of gun control is simply a false sense of safety. People are stripped of their ability to effectively defend themselves against an armed perpetrator, who, by the way, isn’t a law abiding citizen, and made the commitment to break the law and go around the legal gun purchasing system.
Furthermore, it undermines the fundamental reason that our right to bear arms was established by the second amendment: “…being necessary to the security of a free State.” In the eyes of our forefathers, gun control takes away the power of the people to rebel against an unjust, authoritarian rule.
Now, it would be unsensible to allow any person to buy a gun — such as known criminals, non-U.S. citizens, etc. It’s fair to feel this way, however, there is a saying that has been around longer than dirt in our books that governs the instincts of every creature on this planet: “Better safe than sorry” —and no, that “safe” is not defined by infringing upon the rights of law-abiding citizens.
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