Under the Gun

            
             No type of gun violence has generated public alarm in recent years like shootings in schools. Over the past eight years, 206 students have lost their lives because of school-related gun violence. These recent school shootings have raised new questions about gun control:.
              How do we keep guns away from young people?.
              Who is to blame for these shootings?.
              Who should be held accountable?.
              How strict should the punishment be?.
             Group Consensus.
             Our group feels that the person committing the crime is the one who should be held accountable for the action. Sadly, in cases such as the one where a six-year-old boy brought a gun to school and shot his six-year-old female classmate, the person committing the crime is only a child. In these cases, the age of the child should be taken into consideration and the parents held accountable. In addition, we feel that there need to be changes made to the system that allows a minor to gain access to a weapon as well as to the aspects of society that glorify such violence.
             We feel that complete gun control needs to be enacted when dealing with the sale and possession of handguns, semi-automatic weapons, and assault weapons of any variety, and stricter laws, including more stringent age limits, need to be passed on the possession of hunting rifles and the purchasing of weapons at gun shows. When dealing with the punishment for gun-related crimes, we think that the severity of the crime, along with the age of the person committing it and the type of weapon used, must be taken into consideration, before a sentence is given.
             Complete Gun Control vs. Stricter Gun Laws.
             Complete gun control would virtually eliminate the chances of children getting a hold of their parent's guns. Since no one would be allowed to purchase, possess, or carry guns of any kind, this would also decrease the number of people killed by guns, intentionally or accidentally. However, instituting this type of control would have a great affect on people's constitutional rights v/s particularly, their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.