The real issue behind mass shootings

From having to do drills, to fear you will be put into a life or death situation every time you walk through the doors of a school, students in America have to deal with far too much. In 2023 there were 346 school shootings. Since 1970, school shootings have increased more than 12 times.
A major cause behind these crimes is guns, specifically having access to military assault weapons. People are and should be allowed access to handguns for at-home self-protection but there is no reason anyone should be allowed to go into Scheels and buy a weapon that’s only purpose is to kill a mass amount of people at once.
School shootings have been on the rise since the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. Many people blame these shootings on different things: Lack of gun control, mental health, medications, first-person shooter games, etc. Though many have different opinions the clear issue among all of the shooting cases is lack of gun control
Blaming school shootings on mental health and medication can immediately be shut down because the 65 million other people who are on medication for anxiety or depression aren’t committing mass shootings. Even if people who are mentally ill wanted to commit mass shootings, it wouldn’t mean nearly as much if they couldn’t get access to a gun.
If first-person shooter games were the cause of school shootings then how come in Europe and Australia, the kids who are playing these games aren’t picking up guns and shooting up schools? It’s because they have much stricter gun laws than the ones we have. According to Britannica, there are 120.5 guns per 100 people in America, which is higher than any other country. This seems to be a direct correlation to the fact that America has the most mass shootings in the world.
Gun control is a big controversy in the United States when in reality it shouldn’t be. According to the Pew Research Center, 58% of adult Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws and better background checks. Despite this, 14-year-olds who have been prior threats to schools are still being gifted AR-15s for Christmas, 19-year-olds are buying guns legally from dealers, and little children can simply happen upon a gun in their parents’ closet. In a report from the National Institute of Justice written by Jillian Peterson about 80% of mass shootings in schools, K-12, stole the gun from their family members. Meaning that many school shootings might never have happened if parents had concealed their guns from their kids.
But this doesn’t mean guns should be banned altogether. A gunless America is entirely impossible. Guns are always going to be prevalent in our society. Whether it’s for hunting, self-protection, or work purposes, guns are sometimes essential for the American people. However, owning an AR-15 does not fall under any of those categories.
In Australia, twelve days after the Port Arthur mass shooting in 1996, the prime minister announced major gun reforms, including the banning and selling of all semi- and automatic rifles, and if someone wanted to purchase one they would have to go through a 28-day process providing a valid reason for purchase. Since this reform, only one mass shooting has occurred in Australia.
An AR-15 is not needed to hunt unless you’re planning to unload one round per second for hunting purposes. An AR-15 is not needed for home protection. The excessiveness that comes with owning that big of a gun for self-protection is selfish. Because Americans demand these guns to be sold so they can ‘protect their home’, the retribution will fall on innocent kids in school.
America’s laziness and pride concerning reforming gun laws have the future of our nation taking the repercussions. The topic of increasing gun control doesn’t mean that people can’t own handguns to protect their homes, or shotguns to hunt with. It may call for more thorough background checks, parents having to lock their guns up when a child is in the home, or not selling military assault weapons that are meant to kill many at a time. The US Government needs to take immediate action against mass shootings to protect the American people.