What Is It Going To Take?

What is it going to take…yet another shooting?
Last week, the worst shooting in the United States occurred at Virginia Tech. College student, Seung-Hui Cho, went on a shooting rampage and killed 32 people including classmates and faculty. Cho then killed himself.
The Virginia Tech shooting took place just a few days before the eight year anniversary of the Columbine high school massacre in Colorado. In that school shooting two students killed 12 other students and a teacher before killing themselves.
It is not just Columbine though. Unfortunately, there have been a string of deadly school shootings for the past couple decades.
Before the Columbine shooting there was the Jonesboro school massacre in Arkansas where two middle school boys shot and killed four students and a teacher. The boys were just 13 and 11 years old. Can you believe that? So young and killing innocent people.
This next school shooting hits close to home. In 1989, five children were shot and killed while playing during recess at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, CA. A disturbed man named Patrick Purdy not only killed these five children, but he also wounded 29 others. Purdy then decided to kill himself, which seems to be a pattern of school shootings. Purdy was using a semi-automatic rifle. This dark day is known as the Stockton Massacre. This also leads me to the topic of gun control.
In the wake of the Stockton Massacre, the state of California was the first to ban semi-automatic assault weapons known as the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Act.
It is 2007 now and several more school massacres later, I am here to say we need more strict laws on gun control. I understand that many people will not agree with me on this, especially conservatives, but I do not think it is a good idea for anyone to own a gun. And I cannot stress this enough: It is definitely not a good idea to own a gun if you have children. The Jonesboro school massacre I mentioned above proves this point. The guns the two boys shot the students with were stolen from one of the boy’s grandfather’s house. Point taken.
People who argue against this say it is good to own a gun for a self-defense situation. There are other ways to protect yourself instead of owning a gun. For example, I have pepper spray. Pepper spray does not kill, but gives me enough time to get help in case I am in danger. It just seems like guns always wind up in the hands of psychopaths who use them to murder other people. No self-defense involved.
Obviously, the gun laws we have now are not working. Something drastic needs to happen in order to reduce school violence. Unfortunately, I do not think school violence will ever be completely eliminated since that is just the crazy world we live in. However, with stricter laws violence can be reduced and lives can be saved. I will never know why it is so easy for sick/disturbed individuals to walk into a school with a gun.
What will it take for this madness to stop?