We currently have some politicians who represent the viewpoint that the very large number of guns owned in America do not contribute to gun violence, who think that every person should be allowed to own a gun, and who think that everyone should be allowed to carry a gun around with them in public.
At the same time, we have some politicians who represent an entirely opposite viewpoint because they think it is the guns themselves that cause crime. These politicians blame gun ownership for all gun violence, and do not acknowledge that it takes both guns and people’s incorrect behaviors and decisions to cause gun violence.
Therefore, as we try to decide what our gun laws should be in Our Country, it is very important that we show Respect and Understanding for the opinion of Everyone because the Truth and the Solution is always in the middle between the different viewpoints.
America was founded under the Constitutional principle that every person should be allowed to own a gun to protect themselves against the threat of a tyrannical government, and to protect themselves against the threat of violence.
Therefore, many people in America have the belief that every household should be allowed to own a gun for self-protection.
In addition, many people think it should be legal for guns to be carried around in public for protection.
However, we have a situation where the amount of gun violence in America is far beyond acceptable, and so we need to work hard to come up with Solutions that will eliminate gun violence as much as we possibly can.
Some politicians choose to focus their attention on laws to restrict assault rifles, thinking that if they implement assault rifle bans then that will solve the entire problem on its own.
This is not correct, though, because the facts show that handguns were involved in 59% of all the people killed by guns, while rifles were only involved with 3%.
Therefore, we need to look at the gun violence in America from a much more complex perspective.
I lived in England for 14 years, and in England they have some of the strictest gun laws in the world.
The police in England did not even carry a gun when they walked around on patrol, but despite the police being unarmed it was extremely rare for anyone to ever get shot in England.
Statistically, in America there were more than 48,000 people killed by guns just in 2021, the highest number in American history.
In comparison, in England and Wales combined there were only 35 people killed by guns in 2021, and only 28 people in 2022.
With the highest number of people in American history shot in 2021, it is not surprising that the highest number of guns sold in American history occurred in 2020, with more than 20 million guns sold in America in just that one year.
Similarly, there were 647 mass shootings in the United States in just 2022, and in Great Britain there have only been a total of 5 major shootings by a civilian in all the hundreds of years of British history combined.
How can we possibly be willing to accept 647 mass shootings in one year in America when a country like Great Britain only has 1 shooting every 100 years?
In addition, many of these mass shootings in America have harmed Our Children, including harming many of Our Children when they have been in schools.
Likewise, total gun-related deaths in America have increased by 43.3% during the past ten years, and criminal gun-related deaths have increased by 75.3%.
The drastic increase in these statistics shows that our current gun laws are not working.
Americans are 25 times more likely to be shot and killed than people in other countries, 327 people are shot in America every day, and 23 children are shot in America every day.
In many states, injuries from guns have become the leading cause of death for children.
Therefore, since Our Goal is to Build A World For Our Children, then we obviously need to take serious action to reduce gun violence in America because the gun violence we have currently is completely unacceptable.
As we look for a Solution, the two crucial questions facing our society involving guns are:
- Should every person be allowed to purchase and own a gun?
- Should people be allowed to carry guns around in public?
As we look to answer these two questions, we need to be willing to speak with and listen to Every Person in America because Every Person’s Life is affected by guns in some way, either through the ownership of guns, through their use of guns for recreational purposes, or because of the threat to them of gun violence.
Therefore, we cannot just force a dangerous gun environment onto Our American Citizens without considering all viewpoints, and without coming up with a Solution that protects Everyone’s Safety and Everyone’s Rights.
All Citizenship Rights that we have need to be treated equally.
Some of Our Citizenship Rights like the ownership of a gun are formalized in Our Constitution, but Our Citizens also have the Right to safety for themselves and for their families.
Guns and gun ownership laws affect the Safety of Every Person in America, including people who choose to own guns and people who choose not to own guns, and so it is crucial for us to Respect the opinion of Every Person in America when we design our gun laws.
In addition, because the Truth and the Solution are always in the middle between all the different viewpoints, then we need to find a Compromise between the viewpoints that will allow us to move forward together as a safe and unified Country.
As we Unite and move forward together, then let us take a look at the key factors for any decision.
A starting point for this discussion should begin with our Constitution because the Second Amendment of our Constitution states that every person is allowed to own a gun to protect themselves against the threat of a tyrannical government, and to protect themselves against the threat of violence.
The argument that many people have against the Second Amendment is the thinking that our Country’s founders wrote the Second Amendment during a different time period than today, when America was under threat from England, and when guns were not the modern and far more dangerous weapons that our guns are now.
In looking at these two opposite viewpoints, there is Always a way to create a Compromise between viewpoints that is a Winning Solution for Everyone.
The fact is that both of these viewpoints have the Primary Goal of creating safety for themselves and for their families.
Therefore, we need to design a Solution that considers all these safety considerations so that we can create a Solution that protects the safety of Everyone no matter what their viewpoint is.
The beginning point for this Solution is to respect Our Constitution by allowing Our American Citizens the right to own a gun to protect themselves and to protect their families.
However, Every Person on both sides of the debate wants our gun owners to have the knowledge and skills to be able to handle their guns safely.
In addition, Every Person on both sides of the debate wants to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and people who are dangerous.
This means that we need to Find A Way to design a Solution that allows gun ownership to occur in as safe an environment as possible.
Along these lines, it is logical that people in America should have to go through a coordinated licensing process before purchasing a gun, including for purchases at gun shows because careful licensing processes protect everyone.
In research studies, it has been found that 97% of Our American People want stronger background checks for gun purchasers.
Therefore, our Solution would make it a requirement that anyone who purchases a gun or uses a gun must first participate in and pass a gun safety and shooting course before they can obtain a gun license.
We have requirements like this for anyone who wants to be able to drive a car or a truck, and this licensing requirement for driving makes our roads much safer.
It is completely logical to require this same kind of preparation and safety training for owning a gun because a gun has at least as many potential dangers as a car does.
Included with this safety course would be a national standardized gun license safety test that every potential gun owner and gun user must take and pass before they can own or use a gun. A test that includes both a written part of the test that requires gun safety knowledge, and a gun handling and shooting practical part of the test that requires the minimum required amount of gun skills.
Just like there is a national standardized car driving test that every potential driver must pass which includes a written part of the test that requires knowledge, and a practical driving part of the test that requires driving skills.
Requiring a gun safety course and gun safety test like this would increase safety in many ways, including by keeping people from being able to purchase guns quickly when they are angry, and by keeping guns from being sold to people who are going through mental difficulties or who have committed violent crimes in the past.
We often see where people have purchased a gun just before they go to shoot someone. Requiring these people to slow down by first taking a gun safety course, and then passing a gun safety test to qualify for a gun license, would allow time for people to calm down, which would keep many of the current emotional shootings from ever happening.
An additional advantage to requiring a safety course and a safety test before someone is allowed to own or use a gun will occur when police find criminals who are in possession of guns, because the police will be able to take these guns away before the guns are even used if the criminals have not previously passed a gun safety course and a gun safety test.
By violating these safety course and safety test rules, and having their unlicensed guns taken away, then unlicensed criminals will not be able to own or use another gun without first passing a gun safety course and a gun safety test. However, they would not be eligible to pass a safety test since they had already committed previous gun-related or violent crimes.
Therefore, a gun safety course and a gun safety test would help to get guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals, would help to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals, and would make all of America much safer for many reasons.
In addition, when someone has previously been found guilty of domestic violence, or has previously been found guilty of any other kind of violence, then many people think that this person should not be allowed to purchase a gun or have possession of a gun, for at least a specified period of time.
This law regarding a previous domestic violence conviction restricting the right to own a gun was already voted on and passed by Congress back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. However, it has since expired without renewing it, and so Congress can very easily pass a similar law again.
This is a logical rule that protects everyone, because when someone has been involved in violence in the past, then this shows that they have previously displayed a temper, and having a temper does not combine well with having a gun.
In summary, allowing gun ownership, but requiring every gun owner and gun user to pass a written safety test and a practical safety test, is a Compromise that is fair to Everyone and safe for Everyone.
Requiring this test will help to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, help to keep guns out of the hands of people who are going through a period of personal anger, and help to keep guns out of the hands of people who are going through a time period in their Lives where they are not in the correct state of mind to be safe with a gun.
Requiring this test will also increase gun safety by reducing the number of home accidents and hunting accidents that occur with guns.
There are currently an average of 430 people killed every year in America by accidental shootings, and this number is four times higher than other high-income countries around the world.
All of these accidental shootings are preventable with better safety training and with the improvement of rules in all 50 states for the safe storage of guns in homes.
Therefore, requiring a gun safety test before purchasing a gun or using a gun is a Winning Solution that will Benefit Every Person in America.
This brings us to the second question, which is whether people should be allowed to carry a gun around in public.
For us to answer this question, then once again we need to consider the Rights of Every American Citizen, and we need to be willing to talk with and listen to Every Person.
The Constitutional Right to own a gun for protection from a tyrannical government does not apply to carrying a gun around in public because a person can go home to get their gun before a tyrannical government has time to take over.
Consequently, the main argument that people make for being allowed to carry a gun around in public is that they should have a Right to protect themselves and their families.
However, the statistics show that allowing guns to be carried around in public actually increases the number of shootings by a very large amount.
In states that have made laws during this past decade which allow guns to be carried around in public, gun deaths have increased by 50% during the past ten years, and gun deaths for children under the age of 18 have tripled.
Therefore, the facts show that guns carried around in public do contribute to gun violence because accidents and many losses of emotional control do occur that result in split-second shootings that take away the lives of the people who were shot.
These shootings also ruin the lives of the people who lost control of their emotions for just a second.
In addition, guns being kept in cars and trucks are often stolen by criminals, who then use these stolen guns to cause an increase in gun violence.
As we look to correct this increase in gun violence that has been caused by new public carry laws, we need to appreciate and understand that Everyone has the Right to be Safe in public, including both gun owners and people who do not own guns, and the facts are that it is less safe for people to be out in public if some people are carrying guns.
In addition, if people who want to commit crimes are legally allowed to carry a gun around in public, then there is nothing the police can do to stop the potential crime until after the criminal shoots the gun.
Public safety departments and police departments do not agree with people being able to carry guns in public because they think it is much safer for Our American People when guns are not allowed to be carried in public.
This opinion of our public safety and police departments is very understandable because carrying a gun around town was not even allowed in some of the wildest towns in the wild west, and so if it was not allowed in many areas of the much less populated 1800’s, then that reduces the argument that it should be allowed now.
One group of politicians tries to make the argument that everyone should be allowed to carry a gun around for their own protection.
As a result of these politicians’ votes, new laws during the past decade have made it legal for guns to be carried in public.
However, during these ten years since guns have been allowed to be carried in public, there has been a 50% increase in the number of shootings, and the number of gun deaths for children in many states has tripled.
Therefore, the facts do not support that it is safer when people are allowed to carry guns.
The increased danger of carrying guns in public is further displayed by how gun carry laws allow handguns to be carried, but not rifles, and 59% of all shootings occur with handguns, while only 3% occur with rifles. This is because a very high percentage of shootings occur with handguns in emotional moments when people quickly grab an available handgun before they have had the time to calm down.
Consequently, the number of people who actually end up protecting themselves by carrying a gun is far less than the number of times someone loses his or her temper for a split second and destroys many lives and families, including destroying their own life, by shooting someone.
In the past, people would lose their tempers for a second and maybe just push someone, or bump someone, or walk up to someone in a threatening manner without actually getting involved in a physical altercation.
However, when people are carrying a gun with them and they lose their temper for just one second, then they often make the mistake of shooting someone that ruins many lives, including ruining their own.
Each of us has gotten angry for a few seconds at some point in our lifetime, and so carrying a gun around all the time is not a good idea for any of us to do.
These split seconds of anger result in all kinds of crazy things, including car drivers shooting at other cars when the driver feels that someone was rude to them in traffic.
People do not want to worry about going to the grocery store and having someone shoot them because of some small disagreement.
People also do not want to worry about being shot from another car every time they accidentally do something that makes another driver angry.
Therefore, we need to do everything we can to eliminate these split-second emotional mistakes.
An additional problem with people carrying guns in public is that these new public carry laws have allowed shooters to get charged with a lesser crime when they claim they acted out of emotion, instead of them being charged with the more serious premeditation crime.
Carrying a gun in public and acting out of emotion should not be a lesser crime because carrying a gun in public and acting out of emotion does not bring the other person back who was shot.
Emotion should not be a viable defense in these situations to try to get a lesser crime charge because choosing to carry a gun was a planned and premeditated decision that was made without emotion. Therefore, it was that premeditated decision to carry the gun that resulted in the risk of shooting it in a moment of lost emotional control.
When someone is charged with drinking and driving, they do not get off with a lesser charge because they drank before they were driving. They made the mistake of drinking before they were driving, and they are punished for that earlier mistake when they are later driving.
Likewise, when a person chooses to carry a gun, then that is a premeditated decision that is similar to choosing to drink before driving, and so their mistake of carrying the gun and then later using it in a moment of emotion should be treated just like the drinking of alcohol is treated.
In addition, allowing people to carry a gun in public has completely opened-up the opportunity for the shooter to falsely claim self-defense that a court might struggle to disprove, because if the person who was shot was walking toward the shooter, then the shooter can try to falsely claim the other person was a physical risk to them.
There may not have been anyone else around, and so there may have been no witnesses to see what actually happened.
The person who was shot might have only been walking up to the shooter to talk with them, but without witnesses then it becomes the shooter’s word of self-defense against someone who is not there anymore to speak to the court.
In conclusion, the entire argument that everyone should be allowed to carry a gun in public to protect themselves is not factually supported, and allowing people to carry guns has opened up all these very difficult legal situations when a shooting takes place.
In contrast, if guns are not allowed to be carried in public, then none of these gray area legal situations can occur, and since they cannot occur then All Our American People are much safer and are far better protected.
In finding this Solution, we want to ask ourselves what a gun owner would answer if they were asked whether the public is safer when everyone is carrying a gun around in public or when no one is carrying a gun around in public?
The gun owner would very likely say that it is safer when no one is carrying a gun in public than it is if everyone is carrying a gun around.
Therefore, when someone thinks they should personally be allowed to carry a gun because it is safer for them, then what they are really saying is that they feel safer when they have a gun and most other people do not have a gun.
Because if that person is carrying a gun, and all the people in town are also carrying a gun, then no one in town is safer because every person in town is carrying a gun, and everyone in town is potentially dangerous if they get mad about something.
As a result, not only is it more dangerous for everyone to carry a gun around in public, but the statistics also show that it is very dangerous for people to have a gun that they keep in their house.
Although a gun in a house will have more potential protection uses than carrying a gun around town has, the statistical facts are that many people in homes are shot accidentally, or are shot by mistake, or are shot in domestic arguments, or use the guns on themselves.
Therefore, all 50 states should have laws that require the locking up of all guns when they are being kept in homes because this reduces accidents and reduces the number of emotional shootings.
In conclusion, we need to analyze gun shootings and our gun laws very carefully so that we maximize the safety of Our Children and all of Our American People.
It is crucially important that we start using common sense and logic to make decisions instead of taking politically partisan positions that are not factual or logical.
We also need to look at other countries who are very successful controlling gun violence, like England, and see what laws they have that bring about their success so that we can learn from them.
It is not acceptable in any way for America to have 647 mass shootings in a year. What are we thinking to allow this to happen year after year to Our Children and to Our Loved Ones?
Also, what are we thinking when guns are the leading cause of death for children in many states?
By implementing the gun safety rules we have discussed here, then we are creating a Win-Win situation for Everyone in America because Americans will be allowed to own guns if they choose.
However, the gun safety course and gun safety test that will be required to obtain gun ownership or a gun license, and the laws restricting previous offenders from owning guns, will get guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals, and will put guns in the hands of only trained and licensed individuals.
This Win-Win solution will keep Everyone in America safer, including keeping our gun owners safer, and even keeping our hunters safer.
While we implement these rules for the good of Everyone in America, we also want to be cognizant of the fact that it is people who ultimately pull the trigger that leads to gun violence, and so any attempt at reducing gun violence also needs to include an emphasis on changing the behavior of people, not just an emphasis on the guns.
Therefore, on a related but separate issue that we never hear any politicians talk about, we need to make changes to our violent video games.
It is very arguable that violent video games are one of the very largest reasons for the gun violence we have in America.
Many research studies have shown that the violence that takes place with guns in video games has a negative and violent effect on our society, especially with younger males.
In sports, practice simulations are now designed and available for skill development in every sport.
Practice simulators are also available for many career fields, such as for flying, police and FBI training, and landing commercial airliners.
Coaches, players, and experts know that the realistic technological simulations for baseball hitting, and golfing, and every other sport, are beneficial for athletes to practice because the athletes get to perform repetitions in what appears to be a real-life environment.
This simulation practice improves the athletes’ skills in their sport.
Likewise, commercial pilots use flight simulators that are very realistic to learn and perfect their take-off, flying, and landing skills.
Therefore, it would be illogical for anyone to try to say that when a person plays a violent shooting video game for hours every day, during which they are shooting people in a very realistic-looking environment, that they are not making it easier for themselves to actually shoot someone in real life.
Psychologists refer to people playing violent video games as cognitive rehearsal because without realizing it they are rehearsing and practicing and training their minds to shoot people.
Medical studies have shown that playing violent video games causes people to exhibit more aggressive and violent behavior, and causes people to become more comfortable seeing and participating in violence.
For example, one study took college students, had half of the students play violent video games, and the other half of the students play regular video games.
Then, they had all the students watch a ten-minute movie video that contained considerable violence.
The study had the students connected to devices that measured their physical and emotional responses while they were watching the violent video, and the studies found that the students who had been playing the violent video games showed much less physical and emotional reaction to the violence on the video.
Therefore, the students who had been playing the violent video games had gotten more comfortable seeing violence, and they had become desensitized to seeing this violence.
Becoming desensitized means that they had physically, mentally, and emotionally gotten more comfortable seeing the violence in the violent video games, and so they did not think that the violence in the movie was as wrong as the students did who had not been playing violent video games.
Numerous studies have found that playing violent video games causes overly impulsive behavior, more aggressive behavior, bad decision-making, prolonged stress, a lack of inhibition for behavior that should be controlled, decreased executive functions, and a decrease in being able to focus their attention on goals, schoolwork, and what should be important to them in their Lives.
Additional medical studies have found that violent video games have a negative long-term effect on the brains of young adult males even after they have stopped playing the violent video games for more than a week.
Therefore, these studies found that violent video games actually permanently changed and altered the brains of young adult males, which is a very scary and dangerous thing to have happening to our young people.
As evidence to support this theory that playing violent video games is a main cause of the mass shootings in America, many of the mass shooters in America have been younger people, usually young males, who were somewhat loners and who spent a large amount of time on their own in their rooms playing violent shooting video games.
All of us are born with a fear of pulling a gun trigger and shooting someone. There have been thousands of movies and television shows that have shown characters mentally struggling to pull a trigger when someone dangerous is walking toward them.
However, when a person pulls a gun trigger in a violent video game hundreds and thousands of times every day to shoot someone in the game, then there becomes a numbing and desensitizing effect on this trigger pulling movement because of repetition and habit.
This is the cognitive rehearsal and desensitizing effects that medical experts refer to with the playing of violent video games.
In addition, when a video game player shoots hundreds of people every day in a very realistic video game, and every time the person who is shot in the game gets back up and keeps playing in that game or in the next game as if nothing happened, then it has to have some desensitizing and numbing effect on the video game player’s willingness to pull a trigger.
It also has to have a desensitizing and numbing effect on their understanding of what happens to a person in the real world when they shoot someone. They may expect the people who have been shot to get back up to play the next game, especially if they suffer from some mental and cognitive issues.
It is very likely that many of these mass shooters became so numbed and desensitized to the act of shooting in the violent video games that they played so often, and became so numbed and desensitized to everyone in the game who was shot in the game getting back up to play the next game, that they lost some of their ability to understand the seriousness and realities of what they were doing during the mass shooting incidents.
They may have become so numbed by the video games that they lost some ability to understand what the long-term effects would be when they went forward with the real shooting.
In conclusion, any plan to reduce gun violence in America needs to take a very serious look at restricting and eliminating some of the violent video games that our Country is allowing our young people to play.
We know that we need to have ratings on films that keep youngsters from watching R-Rated and X-Rated movies, and so it is not logical for us to allow our youngsters to participate in violent video games that would be R-Rated and X-Rated if they were movies.
It has been scientifically proven that young people’s minds, especially young male minds, are not fully developed until a person is at least 25 years old.
Therefore, our Country is allowing the developing minds of our young people to be permanently altered by these violent video games.
This is not only very dangerous for everyone in America, but it is also not being fair to the youngsters who go on to shoot people because as a society we are allowing these youngsters to destroy their own Lives and other people’s Lives by playing violent video games that they should not be playing.
Allowing video game companies to make a profit from designing and selling violent video games is not a fair trade-off for the Minds and Lives of our Young People that we are losing.
Likewise, increased corporate profits are not a fair trade-off for the safety of everyone in our Country.
Therefore, we need to make laws that drastically reduce the violence that is legally allowable for our young people in video games and in movies.
None of our politicians have ever mentioned violent video games as being something we need to look at or change.
Therefore, our politicians have been showing that they care more about the profits of video game companies than they care about the Minds and Lives of Our Children, and more than they care about the safety of every American in Our Country.
These politicians constantly argue about guns, but they never look at and discuss what is causing so many of our American people to shoot our Fellow Americans.
The level of gun violence we currently have in America has never been seen before in American history, and since violent video games have been a recent addition to our American culture, then the beginning of the playing of violent video games coincides exactly with the huge increase in gun violence we have had.
The fact that violent video games and increased American violence are occurring at the same time is not just a coincidence, and so we need to make new video game laws to protect every American Child and Every American.
We owe this to Our Children.
We need to protect Our Young People from having their brains permanently altered and changed by playing violent video games.
We also need to be able to Protect Our Children everywhere they are, including when Our Children are in School and when Our Children are Anywhere and Everywhere else.
