On Friday May 23, a Santa Barbara University student obtained a gun and murdered six people; this was the 44^th school or college shooting since Sandy Hook in December 2012. Gun violence is increasing rapidly in America’s schools and colleges at a rate of more than three gun-related incidents a month. There were thirteen shootings recorded in the first six weeks of 2014 alone. I think the only reason for all this gun violence is the ease at which people can acquire guns, the leniency of the gun laws in America, and the simple fact that there are just too many guns in this country. The preceding information was based off an article on The Guardian.

The Second Amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms, however I believe this amendment deserves a bit of revision. In 1787, the year the Constitution was created, this amendment may have made perfect sense, but now it is being abused. I completely understand that stating a few gun-violence statistics isn’t much of a leg to stand on when questioning an amendment, but I do think those statistics give reason enough to question how relevant the amendment is currently.

I saw a quote by John Stewart that I think perfectly depicts the situation what we are in right now.

“We have one shoe bomber get on a plane and now everyone takes their shoes off. We have 36 school shootings and we do nothing,” Stewart said. Why should a school shooting be any less of a means for change than a plane bomber? It shouldn’t. Yet after all these tragic events, no one has done anything to help.

Known as the “gun show loophole,” most states do not require background checks for firearms purchased at gun shows from private companies. Federal law only requires licensed dealers to conduct background checks. The fact that a person can attain a gun so easily, without having any sort of background check, is terrifying. If a person has any type of criminal background, has been institutionalized, or is in therapy, that person has no business owning a gun. As AHS history teacher Chris Wheatley stated, “If you’re in therapy for being crazy, you probably don’t have any good use for a gun.”

If someone were to make the argument that his or her gun is used solely for hunting, then why would that person need any more than one clip? If a hunter needs over 200 bullets to shoot something, then they probably shouldn’t be hunting in the first place.

If someone were to make the argument that their gun is solely for self-protection, then they should know that a 2011 study by Harvard University suggested that, “Guns in the home provide greater health risk than benefit.” A gun is more likely to send a family member to the emergency room or the morgue than to ever be used against an intruder. If you have a gun sitting in your home only to be used for an intruder, then you probably won’t be a very skilled gunman when after seven years, you pick up the gun for the first time and attempt to shoot a moving target.

It is a clear sign that our society is uncivilized when people feel more comfortable grabbing their guns than speaking to one another about an issue. This is what I fear American society is turning into. The truth is there are just too many guns. According to abcnews.com, there are 51,438 licensed retail gun stores in America, more than three times the number of McDonald’s restaurants. I fully understand that many people own their guns safely and legally, but I am concerned about the rest.