Gun Control
In today’s America the issue of gun violence, particularly in regard to public shootings, is still a huge problem in our communities. Mass shootings have continued to be a problem in our communities, and the call for new gun control laws to be passed has become louder than ever. In my community of Birmingham, there was recently one of these mass shootings that took place. On Thursday, June 16th, a gunman opened fire inside a local church during a dinner and killed three church members and injured others. A man in the room was able to subdue the gunman and held him down until the police arrived. Police claimed that this person was a hero and his actions were extremely important in saving more lives from being lost. Others interviewed after the incident called for a culture change and for new and stricter gun laws to be added. Even Governor Ivey released a statement commenting on how these acts should never happen anywhere, especially a church. Tragedies like this incident at St. Stephens Episcopal Church have seemed to have been common in recent years. Incidents like this have taken place in Uvalde, Texas at Robb elementary school, Newton, Connecticut with Sandy hook, and in San Bernardino, California. All of these shootings in recent years have led to a huge push for new gun law reform. Some politicians are suggesting legislation that would ban the use of any form of assault rifles and make owning and carrying guns much more difficult for American citizens. Others counter argue that this could only lead to law abiding citizens not being able to own guns, whilst criminals will still have access to illegally owned weapons anyway. This issue has sparked much debate on what the future holds for gun ownership in America.
For my community, this issue has sparked talks of the state legislature passing laws that would make it more difficult to acquire guns. This event will no doubt open the eyes of many locals, and potentially change public opinion in my area on the need for gun control reform. Reaction to this tragedy has led to community wide mourning. The shooter was identified and police added that he acted alone and this incident seemed to be isolated. Regardless, this will undoubtedly lead to more in my community to make it harder for mentally unsound people like this individual to get their hands on firearms.
For the church members, this must be an even more difficult time and local politicians also are likely struggling with how this could happen in their city. For gun owners, this could potentially mean that owning and openly carrying guns could be drastically affected. Local and state lawmakers will now be tasked with finding solutions for preventing gun violence in our communities. On the national stage as well, the debate will continue over this issue and both parties will offer up solutions for how to get rid of this problem. Additionally, we could see the use of bodyguards and more police presence at public events like this in our area. There is already heavy police presence, especially in Hoover, at large events like school athletics or concerts, so the use of police at smaller events like church could begin to become more prominent. Potential laws that could now be proposed could involve stricter background checks on individuals hoping to buy firearms, as well as restrictions on certain types of guns like assault rifles. Further, adding requirements to gun owning like mandatory safety training and license renewal should help as well. This could help make sure that people that are mentally ill or have major issues are not currently owning guns and capable of incidents like this. Access to mental health services should also get better. Too often mental health is an issue that is not taken seriously enough, but realistically most of these shootings come from mentally ill people that would likely find a way to commit violence even without guns. Making sure that communities invest in programs like this will help make sure that less people suffer from mental health problems and become vulnerable to commit violent acts. Combined efforts by lawmakers to both make guns harder for mentally unstable individuals to come across, as well as increase police presence at public gatherings could help in making sure situations like this become less and less common. Hopefully, the local and state governments are hard at work making sure legislation is going to be passed that will make us less likely to see events like this happen.