Gun control: ignoring enforcement

The ever-lasting debate over gun control in the United States has been re-ignited yet again following the tragic deaths of two television journalists in Virginia.

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were both shot to death on live television by a crazed gunman, Vester Flanagan, who then proceeded to kill himself. As nationwide condolences and sympathy pour into the state of Virginia, the push for more gun control becomes stronger.

The question is, does gun control actually need to be enforced? Would our lives ultimately be safer with a regulated system enforced by the law?

The answer: yes it should, and yes it would.

As if gun control wasn’t already one of the most heavily-debated  topics in the U.S, the latest killings of these two innocent journalists should be the icing on the cake…and this cake has been baking for a long, long time.

School shootings, movie theater shootings, church shootings, you name it. One would think after all the suffering constantly endured by the public that the government would try to improve their policies. Each individual shooting serves as a mere reminder now – a reminder of how relevant this subject really is.

It’s worth mentioning that Flanagan must have been an extremely mentally-ill human being. Such is the case with several other shooters, nonetheless it is no excuse for such a horrendous action. Flanagan had recently been fired from his job as a news anchor, and from then on his only interests were gaining revenge on the network that let him go.

And as trite as it is to associate this with another shooting, how our country addresses mental-illness is a huge issue. The 1968 Gun Control Act attempted to rectify this by prohibiting anyone who had even been committed to a mental hospital from purchasing firearms. In 2013, the Safe Act was passed to require health professionals to file reports on mentally-ill patients that could be a threat to society. But even with these restrictions put into place by the law, mentally-ill gun owners still exist and continue to threaten innocents.

So how exactly could gun control laws work? If it’s such an easy fix, then why is this such a huge debate? Let me show you.

Take a look at the United Kingdom.  Gun control is heavily enforced and more importantly, it’s much harder for criminals to even acquire guns in the first place. Getting a gun license is extremely tedious and is a very long process. Not only does a registrant  have to spend hours filling in paperwork, but he/she must prove to the police that the gun will not be used for an unreasonable purpose. Therefore, there are significantly fewer gun-related crimes in the U.K. than there are in the U.S.

Too many criminals purchase guns legally nowadays. A way to deter their efforts could be to set in place stronger background checks and mandatory waiting periods. Not only that, but semi-automatic weapons should be banned from public use in general. Only police and military personnel should have access to them.

Obviously it’s a tall task when it comes to regulating gun control. But our country deserves better and innocent people like Alison Parker and Adam Ward deserved better. If we can pull together and use these recent shootings to inspire us as a nation, maybe, just maybe, we can finally solve this problem. The longer we wait, the more this law will be swept under the rug and too many families have been torn apart already. The time to act is now.