On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting in Las Vegas re-ignited the controversy of gun control.  Without stricter gun control laws, people like Stephen Paddock will continue to take lives.

Stephan Paddock is the shooter who attacked the Jason Aldean country music concert in Las Vegas from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel. He killed fifty-nine and injured over 500 with legally purchased guns.

Citizens in the United States have been debating over the topic of gun laws for decades. Should the laws be stricter and will passing gun control even prevent mass shootings, such as the one that happened in Las Vegas. Making guns harder to own may just be the solution.

According to an AP-GfK poll, 61 percent of Americans believe the nation’s gun laws should be tougher.

The weapons the Las Vegas shooter used were legal. In the last seventeen recent mass shootings the past few years the shooters had purchased their guns legally. Sadly,at least eight of those gunmen had mental health problems.

To USA Today, “You can think emotionally or you can think logically,” Turner [president of the Nevada Firearms Coalition] said. “We need to really logically look at what happened to see if there are any solutions.”

What needs to be looked at is that civilians should not need to own military grade firearms or accessories. Completely banning guns does go against the second amendment; however, the second amendment was written at a time when weapons had to be reloaded after every shot.

Our technology today is way more advanced than that. Today we have accessories like silencers that hide the shooter’s location. Paddock also had the capability to shoot about nine bullets a second. Civilians should not be able to get their hands on that kind of technology.

Stephan Paddock used a AR 15 rifle this rifle allows for high velocity rounds, fires accurately, and reloads quickly. He owned this gun legally.

James Edgar Holmes, who also used an AR 15 rifle at the mass shooting in the Century movie theater in Aurora Colorado on July 20, 2012, also owned his rifle legally.

No big changes has been happening to help prevent all the mass shootings that have been happening recently. It’s time to pass stricter gun laws to make it harder for civilians to obtain guns by banning guns with such advanced and deadly technology. Stronger and more thorough background checks are also necessary and need to be enforced..