We live in a country where deadly weapons capable of mass carnage are extremely easily accessible in certain areas.
Southern states for example have notoriously seen continued accessibility to weapons to young, sometimes mentally unstable, individuals who go on to commit mass murder with the weapons.
An Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention report to Congress cited their South Carolina gun study among rural students, in which, “the researchers found that 14% of the students reported owning a rifle or shotgun and 9% reported owning a pistol or handgun.”
This type of accessibility of guns for minors is one part of the picture. If minors, who are often not even fully emotionally mature, can have such access to weapons they are capable of killing people with, then adults have it even easier. This ease in accessibility has clear differences between states.
A comparison between gun-buying laws in New York and Texas from Everytown Research and Policy, showed New York’s foundational laws include a background check and/or purchase permit and a concealed carry permit requirement, as well as extreme risk and no shoot-first law implementations. Texas did not require any of these.
Evidence like this raises the question: does any prevention of weapons getting into the hands of possibly mentally unstable or unsafe individuals exist in states like Texas? The answer is no.
The other clear concern raised in cases like this is the difference between state regulations. New York decided to take steps to prevent mass shootings, while Texas does not. This type of separation in state legislative decisions that would benefit a common goal of preventing mass shootings nationwide should be stopped. The solution for this is the implementation of greater federal oversight in the gun-buying process.
No matter what political or personal views you have on who should be allowed to buy a gun and how easy it should be, the fact is that when there are no background checks or permits required to purchase a gun in a state, virtually anyone with enough money can legally get their hands on a gun.
While further black markets of unregistered weapons can open up for people with bad intentions to buy guns, the prices in those markets would likely skyrocket because of the increase in buying restrictions.
In this argument, the question of the Second Amendment could be raised. Militias do not exist anymore, and the need for local townspeople to form one and bear arms in the first place is not needed in the twenty-first century. This amendment was created to protect American citizens from British colonization. The British government is no longer trying to colonize the United States. There is no longer a need for American citizens to bear arms and form militias to protect themselves.
This doesn’t mean that the Second Amendment should be abolished, only that it should not be held to the same standards as it was in the 1700s. The Second Amendment should be modified in a way that allows for the right to bear arms, just in a safer way that includes more background checks and laws to oversee it.
An example of another Amendment that exists but is simply not socially accepted the same way in the modern US is the Third Amendment, barring soldiers from quartering in American civilian homes. While the amendment saw great importance when British soldiers were still in the US, and would often quarter in Americans’ homes, they are not here anymore. It’s not perceived or used the same way as it was in the 1700s anymore, because it is not the 1700s anymore. Times have changed. This exact mentality should be applied to the Second Amendment. While it serves an important use that constitutionally be maintained, it cannot be viewed through the same, strict, lens it was important to view through in its creation.
The fact is, as a nation, America has work to do. Mass shootings occur so frequently here that it’s often not even a surprise when they appear in the news. That is a problem transcending political affiliation or personal perception. We no longer live in an age where guns should be allowed to be freely purchased by anyone who has enough money. For the sake of our neighbors, and our fellow Americans, we need to create a better system of buying and selling guns, on a national level. Not for political gain, but rather for the preservation of life.