What one item can completely terrify you when found face to face with it or can even steal away a life with a single swift move of a finger? What invention so terrible would be created and sold to regular, every-day people from a store that does not necessarily specialize in this object? Guns are weapons whether we want to admit it or not. Yes, there are activities and clubs devoted to learning how to shoot one and hunting is considered sport for millions of people all around the world, but how does that outweigh all the accidental deaths and threats of someone with a gun or even the deaths on purpose by murderers that we hear about every day.

About five years ago, around the corner from my home, a man was shot in broad daylight. He called the police right away claiming that a man rang his doorbell and when he opened the door the man shot him. Police gathered up a search team and even a helicopter to check the forests and streets in our district. My whole neighborhood was fear stricken; we received urgent calls from our neighbors warning us to lock all the doors and not to open it for anyone. We turned on the news to find out that this incident was truly a reality. I was young and didn’t know much about the situation but by my mom’s cries to stay away from the windows I knew something was terribly wrong. After a good hour or two of searching with no spoken results the news crew came back on with an update. To everyone’s surprise they had announced that the violent episode had all been a scam. Listening intently to the news, reporters revealed to us that the man who had been shot was simply cleaning his gun, unaware that it had been loaded. His finger must have slipped on the trigger causing him to shoot himself in the shoulder. He was too embarrassed to let his wife know at the time so instead he was selfish, allowing the cops run around searching for someone that didn’t even exist and caused fear for our whole neighborhood.

Another similar event, not too far from my house, took place a few short weeks ago. Twin brothers around the age of 15 were said to be having an argument and the first pulled a knife out on the other boy, not hurting him or even touching him with the knife just holding it out as a threat to the other boy. The other boy then defended himself with a gun, his brother tried to pull the gun out of his grasp only to have the other brother’s finger pull the trigger with the force of the first brother’s tug. The boy trying to get a hold of the gun ended up getting shot in the hip and rushed to the hospital by mercy flight. The twin that pulled the gun on the victim was said to be tried with first-degree assault and is now located in a juvenile detention facility.

These events happen every day all over the world. Some reckless individuals play a game called “Russian Roulette” where the players stand in a circle awaiting what could possibly be their untimely death. It is a game solely based on chance. There is a single bullet placed into the cylinder of a revolver. The cylinder is then spun and shut. The players then each takes turns pulling the trigger either at themselves or another player attempting to avoid being the unlucky recipient of hot lead. Eventually, if the game is played through, one participant may be severely injured or mortally wounded.

The only logical conclusion stemming from the evidence displayed is that guns are hazardous to public safety at large and need to be put under strict regulation in order for people to live in a peaceful environment. We should not let out-dated practices and sport take precedence over human lives.