On a day which should’ve been filled with worship and love, it was instead filled with terror and death. On October 27th, 2018, 46-year-old Robert D. Bowers armed with four guns, went to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing 11 people and injuring six. A legally-obtained AR-15 was one of the four guns used.

A total of 157 mass shootings have taken place in the United States since
the 1966 shooting at the University of Texas.The numbers of shootings per year has climbed higher and higher in recent years, with investigators reporting that a total of 305 guns have been used. Out of that, 175 weapons were legally obtained whereas 52 were not. For the rest of the weapons, it is unclear how the shooter got ahold of them.This sudden spike in mass shootings is our government’s fault.

In 1994, there was a bill passed that put a ban on assault rifles called the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, prohibiting the sale and purchasing of semiautomatic assault rifles. 10 years later, in 2004, it expired. There has been no action to revive the bill since then.This is extremely concerning. In recent years, over half of all mass shootings were executed out with an assault rifle.Although there are gun laws that prevent people from purchasing one, most of the time they are not enforced.The reason why the ban was never renewed is because it was created under a sunset provision act, meaning that bans under this act will expire after a specific amount of time unless they become formally renewed. Again, how come the government won’t renew the ban? Do they not care about the safety of the students? School is no longer a safe place, nor are bars or nightclubs or even stores.There will always be the fear that someone can come in at anytime with a gun and harm people. This is not okay.

In total, since 1966, there have been 21 mass school shootings ranging from elementary school to college campuses in the United States. The most common weapon, in recent years, is the AR-15, a military assault rifle similar to an M16. AR-15’s can be equipped with legal “bump-fire stocks,” which allow the semiautomatic weapons to fire like automatic ones. School shootings aren’t the only places where AR-15’s are used. In the Las Vegas shooting in 2016, the shooter used AR-15’s with the bump-fire stocks, allowing him to kill and injure more people.   

  There is no way we can get rid of the 2nd Amendment, but the least we can do as a country is stop making it easy for a civilian to purchase an assault rifle. Nobody should be scared of getting shot or killed wherever they go out in public. We need to change the system as soon as we can or else it’s going to be too late.