Gun violence is certainly a concern that grows with each new tragic story we hear or read, but we can’t legislate morality. We can’t force people to do the right things. That starts early in life.
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Gun control is a threat to our national freedom, but how can we stop gun violence without it?
The failures of the Obama administration’s gun control measures have made front pages throughout his administration.
I agree with the administration that making background checks more uniform would have been a good thing; in fact, I consider it a very sensible thing. If someone buying a gun at a sporting goods store or gun retailer has a background check, then someone buying a gun at a gun show should, too. It just makes sense and 90 percent of the population agrees.
Weapons should not be sold to those who have a history of violence.
But the gun control issue must be looked at in a broader light, because there is more at stake than many Americans seem to realize.
The Obama administration has already made it clear that what it really wants is more sweeping and restrictive, and therein lies the problem with its agenda as a whole.
You see, Obama and the far left haven’t read their Constitution lately. It states in the Second Amendment that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Why would the Founding Fathers have said this, and why should we listen?
After all, they wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights more than 200 years ago, and could not possibly have foreseen everything that would happen in modern times.
They could not have foreseen Sandy Hook or Columbine or Virginia Tech.
But one thing they did know — the continued freedom of the young nation was not to be taken for granted.
Hunting and home defense have become standard arguments in favor of avoiding gun control, but although hunting certainly was a concern at the time, and it is doubtless the Founding Fathers wanted people to be able to protect their homes, neither were the ultimate reason.
Their decision to add gun rights was about equipping future generations to fight back against oppression.
They endangered their own lives to throw out a tyrannical government and establish a new one that would give freedom and justice to its citizens.
There was always the chance that America’s new government would one day become tyrannical itself.
And that is why they gave us the right to keep guns, so that if the need ever came again, we could fight against the government for the sake of our freedoms.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Clearly, we do still have a great deal of freedom in this country, and the time to begin an armed rebellion has not come.
But consider what Obama and his administration tried to do first — ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Neither of these are needed for hunting or home defense, and while such measures may have saved a few lives, they would not have reduced the number of school shootings.
These tragedies would still have happened, and many innocent lives would still be lost.
The regulations would have been perfect, however, for disarming the people of exactly the type of weapon that we would need to fight a tyrannical government.
All this is not to say that gun violence should remain unresolved. Keeping the status quo would be even worse than losing our freedom to unconstitutional restrictions.
Rather, the way to curb gun violence is to strengthen the family and bring back the Biblical doctrines and principles that once held sway in America.
For example, a large number of deaths from gun violence among young people occur because they are out on the street, instead of being loved, instructed and invested in by their families.
Sadly, many parents do not even want their children at all. These young people get involved in gangs and can easily acquire guns from the black market.
This, by the way, is another problem with gun control. It becomes pointless if someone is determined to get a gun. Studies have consistently shown that most guns acquired by criminals for use in criminal activity were obtained through black market transactions anyway, or they were stolen.
The lack of Biblical teachings and morality is also responsible for the situation. The emptiness of an immoral lifestyle drives some people to the brink, and they use guns to take the lives of others.
Many people lash out in violence because of their hatred or anger, problems that can often only be healed by a relationship with Christ.
On top of all this, American culture encourages selfishness and greed, and glorifies killers of the past.
It is this lack of morality and Christian truth that must be addressed, and only the restoration of these will stem the tide of gun violence without destroying American liberty.
Only then will people value their fellow man and have their need for something greater in life satisfied.
Triston Buckley 
Emily Retzer