In the United States, guns have been purchased and sold without much of a screening process for who can buy guns. This is dangerous because mental illness is severe in the United States. Roughly 18.2 percent of adults in the United States suffer from a mental illness. Why are we not stopping the 42.5 million adults in the United States with a mental illness from buying guns?

People who are in the right state of mind should be allowed to use their right to bear arms, but it’s people who aren’t in the right state of mind who shoot up crowds of people because the voices in their head say they need to. However, the less than adequate screening process is not a good reason to stop guns from being available to the mentally healthy public.

Why is it that the police force has to endure large amounts of training on gun safety and mental health tests while the general public only has to apply for and purchase a license? I believe if there was a more intense process people had to go through to get weapons, then most of the people getting them for negative intentions would be turned away and denied a license to own a gun.

Ever since the beginning of time, in every stretch of the world, there has been a species with an advantage that does what it needs to survive. Whether it’s a cheetah with its claws and teeth, a bee with its stinger or humans with weapons, every species needs some kind of defense mechanism. Guns are a huge protection device that has been used for the longest time.

Guns keep people safe from harmful and unpredictable factors. For instance, a farmer who wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of his herd in distress can use a gun to protect them from whatever may be attacking them. Or, the family of four in a somewhat rural area who suddenly have an intruder in their house. Guns can protect this family.

If not for anything else, owning a gun is a way to maintain peace of mind for those who only want a gun to protect themselves. The unpredictable can be scary. Having one extra thing to keep you and the things you love safe isn’t an awful idea.

In conclusion, guns should remain legal. Our founding fathers wrote it in the Bill of Rights because they wanted the people of the great United States to feel protected and free.

Nothing has changed since then except for the amount of mental health issues people have. Therefore, we should adjust the way guns are bought to fit the people, not the rights written for the people all that time ago. After all, guns don’t kill people, people kill people. So why give out deadly weapons to people who will use them to harm others?