gun violence: The soulution that will please both sides

There is a major problem of gun violence in America: a single shooter can kill a large number of people before getting brought down by the police or taking their own life. I propose a solution that will help stop mass homicides, but not infringe on people’s right. The banning of high-capacity ammunition magazines and semi-automatic rifles would make mass homicides difficult for a single person. The second amendment of the constitution guarantees the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.

Some people believe that any stricter gun laws will infringe on this personal right. While they have a valid point, banning large capacity ammunition magazines would not infringe on their rights because these types of firearms have no use in society. People keep firearms for a variety of reasons. One of these reasons is recreational, these include: hunting, skeet shooting, target shooting, etc(Croft 16/17). None of these activities require a semi-automatic weapon or a high-capacity magazine.

Congress had a ban on semi-automatic weapons in 1994 (which was not re-authorized in 2004), but there is no reason not to try again(Cohen). There have been other attempts to stop gun violence and several currently in the works. Some of these ideas include: requiring background checks, improving access to researching, giving the ATF resources it needs and restricting on violent media(Cohen). Violent media has been a problem for a while now with the rapidly improving technology. Some people believe it has a tie-in with gun violence. Studies however, prove that this is not the case.

For example, Australia and Japan both have lower homicide rates than the USA, but Japan has very little restrictions on violent video games, while Australia’s restrictions are much stricter than those in the US(Siddiqui). This disparity indicates there is no direct correlation between violent media and homicides. Because of the complexity of our gun control problem, there is not going to be a magic solution that will please everyone. But, with that being said, we must still try to find a solution that pleases the majority. I think a first step to a solution is to ban high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic weapons. Since these types of firearms have no real use in society, it will not interfere with the vast majority of people’s lives.

At the same time, it will make for a single person to inflict massive casualties on our society.