“Son. What you are cradling in your hands is NOT a gun. It is a weapon that exists for the sole purpose of destruction: it will kill and destroy whatever it is aimed at with brutal precision and efficiency. I’m not telling you this for you to be afraid of it. But to respect it.”

That was exactly what my father said to me at the young age of 10. I remember always thinking that guns were heavy. Just like the consequences of wielding one without understanding this respect.

According to a report by everytownreseach.com, 217 kids under the age of 17 killed or injured someone using weapons that weren’t properly stored away. I would like to ask you, the reader this question: What do guns mean to you? Are they cool? They are to me, I grew up around them watch action movies and play action shooters with no shame. When I think of guns I think of skill. 

Crackshots are able to hit a target with incredible accuracy. But I also think of hunting. A time honored sport and pastime world wide. Hunting in it’s essence is the tracking, studying, and killing of a living thing. Hunting for many humans around the world is necessary for survival not just for humans but for the animals as well, and any hunter I’ve ever met worth their salt does so with respect. They respect the grim reality of what they are doing and that, although they enjoy it, it isn’t something to treat lightly. But when I think of guns I don’t think of protection.

David Hemenway is a Professor of Health Policy at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. He has amassed extensive research on the matter and has proven time and time again that there isn’t a link between more people having firearms and crime being lowered or stopped in it’s tracks. However it is linked directly to several other horrible occurrences such as 62 percent of firearm deaths are suicide, homicide in domestic violence situations, black men being 14 times more likely to be killed by a firearm than white men, 50 women being killed by an intimate partner in an average month, and the U.S. having the 25 times the homicide rate of other developed countries. All of this information was was from that organization I mentioned at the top Everytownresearch.org. By all means go there yourself and fact check them.

Our nation has a problem with these weapons and in my opinion have the wrong attitude about them. What happened in Las Vegas is in direct response to our system and how it wasn’t good enough to keep those people safe. A seemingly responsible man with no history of violence bought copious amounts of weaponry and passed a background check doing it. That means we change. What’s more important? You wielding a powerful weapon you’ll likely never use? Or ensuring all these things that relate the guns in our country are regulated? These are people’s lives you are endangering all for the sake of a false sense of safety.

Guns will not protect you from our government. When the Constitution was drafted that was a fight the people could’ve fought. But our government has the strongest, most intelligent and lethal military force on the face of the planet. If they wanted to hurt you (and they don’t) no arsenal could protect you from them. Several studies have also showed that you’re more likely to use your weapon on yourself or other family members in the event of someone burglarizing your house.

David Hemenway also stated that mace or even a baseball bat has shown to do the job statistically equally was well. Considering most people try to break into your home when you aren’t home and just want your TV

I like guns. I think they’re cool, a testament to one’s skill and prowess on certain occasions, and even necessary for hunting. But regardless of what I think, what I know is the guns are a weapon. Not to be toyed with but taken seriously even when being used recreationally. We have a responsibility as human beings to look into stricter regulation for these weapons because the situation absolutely calls for it. As my father once told me “If you aren’t man enough to accept and respect that weapon in your hands, which could easily kill everyone here, then you aren’t man enough to wield it.”