Imagine the following scenario, if you will.

(Friends sitting down to watch the evening news).

Friend #1: “Ok, I’ll put five bucks on 14.”

Friend #2: “No, it’s only a Tuesday, the numbers won’t be that high. I’m putting 10 dollars on nine.”

Friend #3: “Hurry up, the news is about to start.”

Anchorwoman: “Good evening. Welcome to Channel 5 news. In our top story, 11 people were shot and killed today, bringing the total number of this year’s gunfire fatalities to 964,….”

Friend #3: “Ok, both of you were wrong, pay up.

Now, I’m not encouraging placing wagers on the deaths of others, but the number of gun-related deaths are so predictable that you could.

Every day you hear about the number of people shot to death or wounded by guns. You hear about 12-year-olds carrying guns into schools.

Is it me or is this getting a bit out of hand?

With all the violence that happens through the use of guns, wouldn’t a stricter gun control policy and a crackdown on illegal guns be the SANE thing to do?

Oh, wait a minute, I know why gun restrictions are so lax. I had forgotten the wisdom of the National Rifle Association—guns don’t kill, people do.

They’re right, I suppose. If we took gun availability away, there would be drive-by-strangulations instead of drive-by-shootings. No, accessibility to guns does nothing to increase violence.

What was I thinking?

According to the NRA, if all guns were put under stricter limitations, the only ones armed would be the criminals with illegal guns.

So, maybe we should all run out and buy a gun so we can live happily in a perpetual state of paranoia. That way we can always be afraid of who else might have a gun pointed at us.

The NRA must be so proud when they see pre-teens following in their footsteps, exercising their right to bear arms.

As wise as the NRA is, they don’t seem to see or hear about the bloody streets in this nation. Don’t they care about the people losing their lives because of this excess in gun use? Maybe they miss the news while they’re out hunting deer with a semiautomatic rifle. As if a better gun improves the death of the deer.

The violence has to come to an end. We have to realize when we watch the evening news that they aren’t reporting the death of numbers, they are reporting the death of people. People who have families that care about them, and have things to live for.

What are we waiting for, another record of people shot to death to be broken? Or maybe some of us just waiting for gun use to touch our lives personally before we take a stand on the issue?

For some people, it’s always okay if it’s someone else.

I understand the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms. But seeing as the Constitution was written over 200 years ago, I feel safe in saying it’s a bit outdated.

I think we should be more concerned with a person’s right to live a full life than the right to carry something designed to take it away.