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Less gun control may be the answer

One hundred and thirty- four. That’s how many mass shootings there have been in 2016 as of Monday, June 13, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. The sad part is that I have to time stamp this because, at any time, that number could increase.
According to the FBI, there must be at least four victims for a shooting to be considered a “mass shooting.” That doesn’t even speak for the other 23,316 gun-related incidents, 5,805 gun-related deaths or 11,773 gun-related injuries that have taken place in 2016 alone.
These statistics are beginning to bother many people. For years, politicians and citizens have been calling for increased gun control. Many more are joining the cause, but I won’t be one of them. I believe that America has enough gun control as it is. I don’t mean the kind of gun control where the government regulates the sale and ownership of firearms. I’m talking about the unnecessary control guns have over so many Americans’ everyday lives.

Our guns control our happiness. It’s impossible for us to live our lives to the fullest if we can’t have all these cool-looking guns to post pictures of and tote around everywhere we go. I’m not sure how we would get through the week without a regular visit to the local shooting range.
Our guns control our sense of safety. How are we supposed to feel secure walking down the street without a pistol on our hip? When we open carry, we ensure that no one wants to mess with us. We keep our families safe with a fully loaded assault rifle underneath our pillows at all times.
Our guns control our entertainment. Without guns, Fast & Furious becomes a film franchise about people racing cars. “Avengers” turns into a movie about superheroes fighting to save our world. “Jurassic World” devolves into a plain old movie about dinosaurs terrorizing a theme park. The movies don’t maintain the same plots if you take guns out of the picture.
Our guns control our popularity. No one will like us if we don’t constantly wave our latest guns in their faces to show them how great it is. Our friends wouldn’t talk to us anymore if it weren’t for our shotgun collections.
Our guns control our rights. If we were to give up the right to bear arms, who knows what they would take next? It’s common knowledge that once they abolish the Second Amendment, they’re coming for our freedom of speech and religion. Keeping our guns means keeping our personal rights.
Our guns control our lives. God forbid we ever give up our guns. It’s not like we’re the ones committing these mass shootings. Those would be the crazy criminals who illegally purchased their guns from a source that got them legally anyway.
Our guns control the lives of others. An AR-15 was used to kill 49 innocent people at a nightclub in Orlando and injure 49 more. A Bushmaster M4 was used to kill 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary. A Glock 22 was used to kill 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.
Hundreds of lives have been ended or changed forever because of guns that look and work exactly like ours. We don’t control our guns anymore. Our guns control us.

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