By CONOR FUCCI

COLUMNIST

Guns and the United States have always had a very close relationship. There has recently been some controversy, however, involving gun control following several tragic shootings.

For decades, gun control has been a topic of debate that has greatly polarized the public. The majority of this debate spirals around American citizens’ Second Amendment rights. Recently, this debate has seemingly come to a head with the occurrence of several mass shootings involving legally-obtained guns. These tragedies include the abhorrent shooting at a Newtown elementary school which claimed the lives of 27 people, 20 of whom were children. This has brought gun control to the forefront of national debate.

The United States’ relationship with guns has created a situation where any talk of additional control over the purchase of guns starts the resistance is strong. Whether or not there should be additional regulations on the sale of guns comes down to a debate on constitutional rhetoric. Does the “right to bear arms” really mean that every citizen should be brandishing a fully automatic assault weapon with an extended magazine? I am not so sure. I do believe that people should have the right to go out and purchase a gun if they want to. I do not believe, however, that people should singlehandedly have the ability to overpower a police force with their personal arsenal. Although I completely understand that there are responsible people who would never hurt another person, there are those out there who would and that is enough for me to want more strict regulations.

Other nations have had great success with the limiting of the sale of weapons. For example, the United Kingdom has completely banned the sale of guns on the islands and the success shows in the numbers. In 2011, the UK had a firearm related homicide rate of .04 per 100,000 people, compared to the US’ 3.6 per 100,000. Even, police for the most part, are unarmed, and that only adds to the significance of these statistics. I know that this may not be the answer to the United States’ problems, but something has to be done to get this under control.

The culture of guns is far too strong in the United States to follow in the United Kingdom’s footsteps, but there needs to be some sort of compromise.

It might be appropriate to look back towards the assault weapons ban passed during the Clinton era. Maybe to own and use an assault weapon, people should be allowed to keep their guns at a shooting range just so they would not be out in the public sphere where people could get hurt. It seems to me that the state of the gun control parameters in the United States lie just where they should.

The “right to bear arms” has gotten to the point where it is infringing on other peoples’ right to live without fear. The government needs to do something so both parties can live together without any additional loss of life.