Gun Control Debate: Supporting Gun Control On the morning of December 14, 2012, around 9:30 a.m., a tragedy struck at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, in Connecticut. 27 innocent people were killed. Gunman Adam Lanza shot dead 20 schoolchildren, 6 adult staff members and his mother before turning the gun on himself. This incident has since been called the second deadliest mass shooting, after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. The tragedy sparked a highly controversial debate over gun regulation more known as gun control. The topic of gun control revolves around the impact of passing laws to regulate the sale and possession of firearms. Gun advocates argue that passing gun control laws will be a violation of Second Amendment rights, which protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms. Those who support gun control favor instituting policies that would make the sale and ownership of firearms even more stringent, perhaps to the point of outright banning guns. Should we wait for horrible tragedies to pressure lawmakers to pass gun control laws, or should we already be enforcing them to protect people and make society safer? Gun control laws must be enforced as guns are becoming more accessible; it will ensure the safety of our citizens and perhaps reduce gun violence. One of the main problems of the gun society is that accessibility to guns has become very easy to obtain. In New Mexico, a 12-year-old boy brought a rifle to school and shot two of his classmates (Johnson). You might wonder how a 12-year-old can hold a rifle. Simple, his family likes to hunt, so he had access to the gun (Milligan). ...... middle of paper ......, ultimately lead to a decrease in gun crimes. In 1982, Chicago banned firearms and the murder rate began to continuously decline after nearly a decade (Washington Times). Banning guns and imposing restrictions on gun ownership will help prevent large numbers of homicides (Milligan). What we need is a society where citizens can be safe. How many children's lives can we save? How many families can we protect? Would you like to have a family member taken away from you because you neglected gun control? To prevent this from happening, a firearms ban must be adopted. Think of all the lives that can be saved by preventing another “law abiding” citizen from purchasing a gun or possessing one, simply by advocating for gun control, this can be achieved. As Americans you would like to live not free and safe or free and insecure?