How many innocent people’s lives need to be taken by deadly weapons such as semi automatic rifles like the AR-15 used yesterday in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting in Parkland, Florida before action is taken and change is made. All people can agree to disagree on the 2nd amendment, but in todays society, these deadly weapons should not be so easily accessible to the general public. Regardless of one’s gun control view point, after all these horrendous acts that have taken place over the years, we all should agree there is absolutely no legitimate lawful reason for someone to have these types of weapons at their disposal. These weapons are machines of war which are designed to kill multiple enemy combatants at once.
As mentioned above, the weapon used in the massacre yesterday was a AR-15, which is a semi automatic rifle. These types of weapons are extremely lethal. Over the years, semi automatic rifles have been used in many shooting massacres such as: Sandy Hook, The Aurora movie theatre shooting, the shooting at the Las Vegas Concert, the shooting at the church in Texas, and now in the shooting yesterday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Semi automatic rifles are very popular amongst users because they go straight through a human body and kill quickly, are light weight and easy to use, and cost between $500 and $900 dollars. It’s not not even the end of February yet and there have been 18 school shootings so far in 2018. (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/school-shootings-year-article-1.3821162) That is more than twice the amount at this time last year.
Certain semi automatic weapons were prohibited between 1994-2004, but since that ended sales have surged. Now, these weapons are known as modern sporting rifles, which gives them a deceiving consumer friendly name. It has been reported that the shooter bought his gun legally.
While none of these incidents are entirely unavoidable, there is a high chance that the damage could have been mitigated if these types of weapons were not so easily accessible to the public. Many will argue that preventative measures like school counseling, social programs, after school programs, and students filling out questionnaires about their mental issues can mitigate some of these incidents. However, while all of those programs and counseling can definitely help, they do not eliminate the potential of this type of massacre to occur when these weapons are so easily accessible. Those mitigation tactics do not deal with the real issue here, that the weapons are so easily accessible, and in this most recent massacre, to a minor.
