It seems as if every time a mass shooting occurs, the topic of gun control comes up and people protest for a few weeks, but nothing is done on the topic.This is partly because they really cannot, the Bill of Rights is pretty much untouchable, but that is another topic for another time.
The reality of the situation is, yes, the gun laws are a little too lax in this country, but the laws people are suggesting, like outright gun bans in England or Australia, will not work here in the U.S.
On a college campus, most of the people you run into are for gun control, and because groupthink is one of the worst things to happen in any area, here are some things to think about the next time you discuss gun control with your friends.
First off, the statistics reported are not relevant to the argument because they are so heavily skewed. The first stat is gun deaths.
Per 100 people in the U.S., there are 10.5 gun-related deaths per year, according to the Pew Research Center. This number is down from 15.2 in 1993 as gun homicides were 7.0 that year. In 2010, gun homicides were at 3.4. However, the bigger note is that 6.5 of those 10.3 deaths are suicides.
The trend is gun homicides are going down and gun suicides are going up. This is not a gun issue; it is a mental health issue, which our country does an awful job at addressing.
The second stat is the mass school shooting statistic. After the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, the statistic of 18 school shootings between the start of the year and the shooting was thrown around a good bit. Now let me be clear, any death is too much, but after Snopes broke down the statistic, it showed only two were what most people would consider a “school shooting.” By this, I mean a shooting which was during school hours and with the intent of killing students.
The Parkland shooting and the Benton, Kentucky, shooting where two died, are the only shootings with casualties in 2018.
According to the United States Department of Education, there are 26,407 public high schools and 10,693 private high schools in the U.S. With this many schools, the shootings are much rarer than people would have you believe. Once again, any shooting is bad and a problem in need of addressing, but this idea that people are scared to send their kids to school in fear of a possible shooting is ludicrous.
The other argument people like to throw into the gun control argument is the success of gun laws in Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom. Which it is important to note that the homicide rate in England spiked after the gun ban, before returning to normal levels according to the Crime Prevention Research Center. They also saw a massive increase in the country’s police force.
These countries did succeed in limiting guns in those countries because these countries are islands. You can successfully ban things on islands because of the ability to limit what comes through your ports.
However, the U.S. shares a massive land border with Mexico and Canada. Mainly Mexico is the concern. Even if guns were banned in the U.S., our massive land borders would make it impossible to keep illegal guns out like on islands.
These are just some things to consider when talking about gun control. There are many other arguments showing how gun laws in other countries will not work here. Examples are pointing out how gun laws have failed in Washington D.C. and Chicago in reducing crime.
This is not to say laws like the HB 1083 are good by any means. HB 1083 was passed by Mississippi through the Senate to allow enhanced concealed carry, which will let owners sue public places not allowing them to carry. Basically letting people carry guns on campus and into football stadiums. 
The reality is, by removing guns from those who can lawfully own them, you take the guns out of lawful citizens’ hands, but people who want to kill others will still be able to have access to them. School shootings are horrible, but if someone wants to kill a large concentration of people, the evil of humanity will find a way.
The solution is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes presented, and Congress has to get to this common ground.