On December 14, people all across America were stunned as the tragic news of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn. spread. Hearing the dreadful news of the death of 20 students and six adults, there were various comments made about the incident and many put the blame of the horrible accident on the lack of gun control.
Some people say, had there been a ban on guns perhaps Adam Lanza would not have been able to carry out his plan of murder. However, what many people fail to realize is the fact that the weapons used in the shooting were not Lanza’s, but were registered to his mother, being strictly in her possession.
Regardless of whether there would have been a ban on guns, this tragedy would more than likely have still occurred. There are always ways for individuals to find the means to have the possession of a deadly weapon such as a gun. In the same way that there are laws made against the use of illegal drugs such as marijuana, those laws don’t stop people from having possession and abusing those drugs.
Guns are treated in the same way, there can be bans put against them, but regardless of those bans people will still succeed in finding ways to have possession of them and use them for evil works. It is not the weapon itself causing the harm and creating the tragedies, but rather the individual who is putting it to use.
Shortly after the tragedy, people everywhere blew up over the hot topic of gun control. Although there have been several shootings throughout the last year, it seemed as if this most recent one was the one that really hit people hard and caused them to become outraged with the fact that people are allowed to own guns. However, considering the situation, had Lanza used a different weapon in his evil deed, people would not have complained about the weapon, but instead the focus would have been on Lanza, himself.
For the sake of gun control, imagine this situation: Lanza enters the Sandy Hook Elementary school. In his hand he holds a hammer, a common house hold tool that can be found in anyone’s possession. With this simple tool, Lanza commits his wicked crime.
Upon hearing this bizarre and tragic news, most people would not be outraged with the hammer and be protesting them, requesting that the nation ban the possession of hammers.
It is not the gun who is the bad guy in the Sandy Hook Shooting. The bad guy in this horrific tragedy is Adam Lanza. Thinking about it, any object could be used to commit a crime such as the one done at Sandy Hook. The real criminal in life is each and every human being. As a citizen of the United States, we all have rights. One of those rights is to bear arms. At the same time, as a human being we all have the free will of choice.
A gun is merely an object, just like a shoe, a book or a hammer. The choices people make are the problem, not the guns.