Opinion: Is the answer to gun violence more guns?

I heard my father get shot in his office while I played with dolls in the living room when I was about six years old. 

My uncle was playing around with my father’s gun and he shot him by accident in the neck. 

I can still see my uncle holding my father by the door, my father's eyes wide open, desperately trying to breathe. That memory is etched in my mind. 

My father survived, but the doctors never found the bullet. 

So I can certainly empathize with any child who has witnessed horrifying events caused by gun violence. 

I know the trauma will live on forever in their minds. Our humanity should not be used to seeing that kind of violence, no matter how often it may seem to be happening.

It should not be normal. 

As of September 10, 2025, there have been 44 school shootings, according to CNN’s analysis of the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety. 

No child should watch their classmates or their loved ones be shot. 

But violence only seems to be increasing in the United States. 

It would be easy to push for background checks, to ban assault weapons and to fight for a comprehensive policy for gun control. 

Fox News, a media company geared toward a conservative audience, released poll results from 2023 and found that 87% of voters agree with requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers. 81% say they favor improving the enforcement of existing gun laws, same for raising the legal age to buy a gun to 21. 80% agree with requiring mental health checks on gun buyers, 80% would allow police to take guns from those considered a danger to themselves or others and 77% would agree with requiring a 30-day waiting period for all gun purchases.

The data indicates that even conservative Americans agree with comprehensive gun control, but there still hasn’t been any progress in Congress. 

Some would say it’s the gun lobbyists controlling the conversation. Some would say it’s radical right-wing activists pushing for even more “good guys with guns” to protect society from the “bad guys with guns.” 

Is the answer to gun violence more guns? I doubt that. But that’s the road the U.S. seems to be on. And I see no exits.