​Carefully picking up her gun, WHS senior Julia Clifford squints her eye as she focuses on the target ahead. She has taken all of the prerequisite classes and she has completed the extensive safety training.

Now, she shoots.

Her finger pulls the trigger and she successfully hits the target. She is filled with a sense of joy and a deep appreciation for a weapon she once feared. Clifford’s gratitude for the ability to use guns, however, is not a universal one.

On Oct. 1, tragedy struck in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire on thousands attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival. With more than 50 dead and nearly 500 more injured, it is one of America’s largest mass shootings. Yet it is part of a troubling trend that has tallied 284 mass shootings so far in 2017, amounting to almost one per day, according to Gun Violence Archive.

When catastrophes of this nature occur, we tend to hear and speak the words “never again,” only to witness another violent shooting a short time later in another part of the country.

America has a gun homicide rate 25 times higher than other developed nations, according to The American Journal of Medicine. As this issue continues to boil over, Americans—including those at WHS—have differing viewpoints about the degree to which guns should be controlled in America.

According to Clifford, imposing stricter gun control restricts everyday people from their right to obtain a gun. “Be it through the black market or another illegal source, a criminal is going to be able to get a gun one way or another,” said Clifford. “The average person should have the right and ability to defend oneself from these threats, especially those in high-crime areas.”
Like Clifford, WHS senior Allison Bronander fears that stricter gun regulations will result in stripping Americans of their Second Amendment rights.

According to Bronander, most Americans who own guns are responsible people and would never use their guns to hurt others. “Instead of taking rights away from people, we should work toward preventing the people who are irresponsible and unstable from obtaining guns,” she said. “They are the ones committing heartbreaking and horrendous crimes.”

Although Clifford and Bronander believe that stricter gun control threatens Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms, other WHS students see these restrictions as a necessity.

WHS senior Linzy Rosen believes that the Second Amendment is “archaic” and no longer applies to modern-day America. “The Founding Fathers were never exposed to automatic rifles, silencers, or bump stocks,” she said. “They knew that the Constitution was an imperfect document to be altered in the future, which is why we must now reexamine the Second Amendment.”
WHS junior Meghan Johnson agrees: “The Second Amendment was created during the late 1700s; to use a gun meant to load it, fire a single bullet and reload. Today, there are people who have machine guns—nobody needs a machine gun to defend themselves.”

In order to determine whether or not Americans should maintain their Second Amendment rights without restriction, people have begun to discuss just what a gun represents.
Is it life? Is it death?

On June 12, 2016, a security guard opened fire inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL, killing 49 people and injuring 58. WHS senior Nick Estrada noted that guns have been used at times as a vessel for political or social statements. “Guns have become associated with various hate crimes similar to the Orlando shooting because there is a huge division between the American people,” Estrada said.

Although she is aware of the negative uses of guns, Clifford also recognizes the good that a gun can do. “Guns are not the murderers,” she said. “They have been used to save lives in both self- and public defense.”

So which is it? Is the Second Amendment an essential right or is it an outdated idea that poses a threat to individual safety? According to WHS senior Cooper Metzger, it’s both.

Having experience with safely operating guns, Metzger said he sees both the good and the bad in them. “Hatred exists within our country in mass, and with hatred comes violence,” he said. “So while I do believe that people kill people, I also believe that people kill people with an instrument that makes it easier to kill.”

So what’s next? Where is America headed in regards to gun control and use, and how should it balance the Second Amendment with these continued mass shootings?

“Most people who advocate against stricter gun control use them regularly and are so normalized to guns that they often forget much of this nation has never touched a gun,” said Metzger. “I picture the nation swinging back and forth on this issue.”