In 1979, a San Diego teenage girl shot 11 people at Grover Cleveland Elementary School because she “[did] not like Mondays.” In 1997, Florida’s Conniston Middle school student Tronneal Magnum shot his friend after school after they fought over a wristwatch. In 2012, a mentally unstable man murdered 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.
The list does not end there. An additional four campus shootings have occurred since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary: at Taft Union High School in California on Jan. 10, the Stevens Institute of Business arts in Missouri on Jan. 15, the Hazard Community and Technical College in Kentucky on Jan. 15, and at Lone Star College in Texas on Jan. 22. As of Jan. 22, 2013, there have been 80 on-campus shootings since 2000.
These tragedies, for the most part, could have been prevented. Most of the shooters attained their firearms from relatives or friends. Only with major adjustments to the Second Amendment, which states that “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed,” will the safety of students in the future be assured.
Advocates of keeping the Second Amendment as is constantly assert that this law has allowed for citizens to possess guns for their own “defense.”
But what is there to defend ourselves from? Statistics from the FBI’s uniform crime reports show that firearms accounted for 68 percent of murder weapons in 2011. If no one could own guns in the first place, the main weapon of choice for criminals would be eliminated.
The very reason that gun murders are so common is the fact that guns are easily attainable, even for underage people who cannot own a gun license. From 1992 to 1999, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) found that most shooters were male, with a median age of 16. The only place these teenagers could have acquired guns would be from their parents.
Currently, in California, one has to be 21 to buy a handgun. However, in Vermont, one only has to be 16 to own a handgun — a dangerously young age at which to start handling firearms. An adjustment to the Second Amendment should include a statement setting an exact age at which one is old enough to purchase a gun. As demonstrated by the young median age of shooters, the older the set age, the better.
Furthermore, the Second Amendment is more outdated than it is relevant. The amendment was created in the 1780s: a time when women could not vote, slavery existed and the fastest form of land transportation was by horse.
As the American Revolution had just ended then, one can extrapolate that the Founding Fathers intended to protect citizens from a tyrannical government like England’s — precisely what had incited the war. Since then, some citizens have clearly abused this privilege.
Also, the fastest shooting gun in the 1800s was the musket: a gun that could load and fire at a painstakingly slow pace of three shots per minute. Now, according to the BJS, 58 percent of civilians own pistols and 63 percent own shotguns, both of which fire the second the holder pulls the trigger.
The improvements in firearms obviously pose a greater danger than the muskets of the 19th century. The murderer can simply fire of dozens of shots without having to stop and think about the repercussions.
Making matters worse, people have even less trouble getting guns now than a generation ago because of the internet.
Online purchasing of guns is even more unregulated than in-store purchases of firearms. In gun stores, the store does a brief background check on the purchaser. However, when buyers buys firearms online, they are almost guaranteed to receive a gun, with no questions asked.
In February 2012, NBC investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen went undercover on various gun-selling websites and attempted to purchase guns. Rossen even hinted at various sites that he may have had a criminal record in the past.
Surprisingly, Rossen acquired eight firearms within 12 hours — even a 50-caliber weapon dangerous enough to take down a helicopter.
Rossen’s investigation reveals just how easy it is for any citizen to attain weapons. Citizens should never have the ability to purchase so many firearms in such little time, and when that does happen, mass shootings occur. To prevent such easy purchases from happening ever again, online selling of guns should be prohibited, and in-store background checks should be more stringent.
Japan is the prime example of a country where the balance of gun ownership and low gun murder rates have met a happy marriage. To purchase a gun, one must undergo a written test, a background check, permission from a mental health doctor and notifying the police of their gun possession. The entire affair takes about 40 days.
The time has come to retire the Second Amendment, and create laws forbidding the sale of guns to any civilian. Easy access to guns in the United States has caused countless crimes in the past; it is time now to make sure school shootings and murders with firearms stay behind us.