Staff Editorial

Pulling the Trigger on Gun

THIS EDITORIAL REPRESENTS THE VIEW OF THE LE JOURNAL STAFF. THIRTEEN OUT OF 21 VOTED IN SUPPORT OF THIS VIEW.

In the wake of increased gunrelated violence, many people are calling for change.

The students at MarysvillePilchuk high school in Marysville, Washington, had seen the news and performed lockdown drills.

Oct. 24, was a day like any other day. Or so they thought. A drill like any other drill. At least until the gunshots were heard, according to a New York Times article.

Fourteen-year-old Jaylen

Fryberg opened fire at 10:39 a.m. He used his relative’s .40-caliber handgun, to shoot and kill three people, two of whom were his cousins, according to Fox News.com.

One month prior in

Kansas City, students sat in their desks just going about their usual routine. It was just like any other September. Loads of homework. Stress about upcoming assignments. The familiar ache in the muscles of athletes as the sweltering afternoon sports practices loomed in the backs of their minds. As usual, students had daydreams peppered by fleeting images of past summer fun.

They were blissfully unaware of the events that would soon take place in their very own backyard.

A man entered the

Woodbridge neighborhood of South Kansas City on Sept. 2. He proceeded to shoot five people, three of whom died at the scene. The other two passed away a week later from their injuries.

It was evident as the news swept through the halls, that many students were in shock; a large majority lived in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Sion itself is only 2.7 miles away from Woodbridge. As Athletic

Director Reynold Middleton interrupted the after school bustle of girls preparing for practice, a silent hush canvassed the New Grande Salle. He explained that outdoor practices were cancelled due to safety concerns. Many faces broke into grins that quickly turned sour upon the realization that people lost their lives in exchange for the students’ night off.

This wasn’t the first time that gun violence rocked Kansas City. On April 13, three people were shot and killed by a gunman: two at the Jewish Community Center’s KC Superstar audition, one at the Village Shalom Retirement Community.

And the list goes on. Sandy Hook. Aurora. Fort Hood. Sound familiar? These are all mass murders that occurred throughout the country in the past two years. Between 1982 and 2012, 49 out of the 62 mass shootings were perpetrated using legal weapons. Half of all of the shooters used assault weapons or high capacity magazines according to guncontrolfacts.org.

There is a direct correlation between gun availability and mass shootings - gun ownership in the United States is the highest in the world. We are more heavily armed than the Russians, the Chinese and the Pakistanis according to guncontrolfacts. org.

Our second amendment is “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

In 1791 when the Constitution was drafted, there was still disillusionment with the federal government. Many of the states were preoccupied with the threat of a British invasion. Therefore, the second amendment was created to ensure that citizens would be able to bear arms against the government if it did not protect their civil liberties.

In 1939 the amendment was required to be interpreted and applied with regards to its “purpose of rendering effective Militia” by the Supreme Court.

In 2008, the amendment was yet again redefined under the scope of self-defense in one’s own home. Self defense in one’s own home does not require high-capacity magazines and machine guns. Unfortunately, these very weapons are readily available to any trigger happy person who meets a few brief requirements. They vary by state, but generally, the buyer must be a current citizen of the United States, can not have been convicted of domestic violence, can not be a fugitive and can not be currently committed to a mental institution at the time of purchase, according to a Washington Post article.

It is the gun that kills people. The people who made the deadly weapons available to them are the ones to blame. Elliot Rodger, the gunman from the Isla Vista shootings in May, had three handguns and more than 400 rounds of unused ammunition that remained in his car. Rodger killed himself before he could deplete the rest of his stockpile. Every single one of Rodger’s guns and all of his rounds were purchased legally, according to an