Kelly Stewart
Staff Writer

In the days since the tragedy in Arizona, new polls have surfaced from CNN and other media outlets, saying the nation’s opinion of current restrictions on guns seems surprisingly unchanged.

While I sympathize with the victims of the tragedy, I cannot help but be relieved the nation’s opinion on guns has not shifted to something harsher. Control of firearms is not the solution. The gun is not to blame; it is the person who pulls the trigger who is at fault.

No, I am not a gun nut. In fact, just holding a gun scares me, and I cannot stand the noise they make when fired. I realize firearms make it easier to harm other people, but the laws concerning them are effective as is.

Gun laws are already strict enough; making them any stricter would interfere with the peoples’ ability to protect themselves.

The Second Amendment to the United States’ Constitution states “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The Founding Fathers who wrote this in intended this right to help us, and the need for that has, sadly, not changed with the times.

Many people keep guns in their house as a form of protection for both their property and their families from intruders. A change in laws would only serve to keep guns out of the hands of people who need them.  

Some valid arguments exist, saying stricter laws would also keep firearms from falling into the wrong hands – and that may be true for some cases, like robbery. But the people who set out to purposefully do harm to other people (like gunman Jared Loughner in Tucson) are not going to care how strict the laws are. Those intent on doing harm will be able to find a gun, regardless of government restrictions.

After all, there is a market for almost anything illegal, and guns are no different. For people who really want to, it would only be slightly more difficult to obtain a gun, but not impossible. The majority of the population, however, who would only use a firearm for protection in the first place, would not have the resources to gain weapons for protection.

The only people hurt in this situation would be the innocent, law-abiding citizens. Restricting gun rights would only restrict the right of these people to defend themselves.

Even if the government decided to completely outlaw the use of guns on a national scale and had an excellent team of officers specifically to catch the people who decided to smuggle firearms in illegally, there are still plenty of things out there that can be used to harm others. Knives, tasers and even forks can be used as weapons. Outlawing one weapon would work if this were a perfect world, but it is not, and we need the right to protect ourselves from what is not perfect about it.

Having stricter gun control would not do anything but give people a false sense of security. And that might be the most dangerous thing to do.