Guns were made for killing. For over one thousand years, that has been their sole purpose. So, why do we feel the need to bring them into places like Starbucks? Do you really plan on shooting in there?

The main issue with this debate is that we are acting on it from an emotional standpoint, instead of a logical. If we could put our feelings aside, and looked at the statistics from an unbiased point of view, we would see that we need stricter regulations to prevent further crime.

Researchers from the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health looked at states, and the rate of crimes committed with firearms. Under the hypothesis “More guns, less crime”, you would think that states with a higher gun to person rate would have significantly lower crime rates, right? Wrong. They found that states with lower gun rates, such as Florida, Hawaii, and New Jersey, had notably less crime than those that had higher percentages of gun ownership. “Gun ownership isn’t causing an increase in crime, but instead crime is causing an increase in gun ownership,” states Evan Defilippis and Devin Hughes of “The Trace”.

Guns on the streets are already dangerous enough, but now states are allowing firearms on college campuses. College students typically range between the ages 18-22. In the average human, the brain doesn’t reach full maturity until age 25, meaning that we are allowing people with underdeveloped brains, and that are of drinking age, armed on campuses full of other students and  teachers. In teenagers, and people aged in their early 20’s, the frontal lobe has not yet fully developed. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that affects judgement skills, so in these early years, it will take longer for you to fully assess a thought or action. In an auditorium of 100+ students with one teacher at the front, how could he or she prevent an angry student from firing?

For those still wanting to carry weapons for protection, statistics prove that guns will rarely help. By looking at data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, Harvard researcher David Hemenway found that from 2007-2011 there were 300+ cases of sexual assault, and a gun didn’t stop a single one. To continue, in the news and media we always hear about shootings and armed assault cases, but never of a situation in which a gun owner saves him or herself with their firearm.

In a nutshell, guns are not the solution. Civilians in America should not be allowed to carry weapons capable of murder with the pull of a trigger. We need to put in place stricter background searches, and mental health checks. Even a “good guy” with a gun is capable of terrible things.