After the horrific shooting of Newtown, Connecticut, the issue of gun control has come to the center of American politics, and the United States will likely have a long debate about it as well as the relevance of the 2nd Amendment. While terrible acts of violence against innocent children certainly make one question the role of guns, new gun laws will not effectively solve the problems that guns can cause.

Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, and for years the city’s leaders have led the fight to ban guns. In fact, for many years, guns were completely banned in the city until the Supreme Court declared this ban unconstitutional. Presently, the sale of guns and ammunition is outlawed in the city of Chicago; because of that, people convicted of violent felonies can never own a gun, and people convicted of a violent misdemeanor are barred from owning guns for 5 years. So far, 42 people have been shot and killed as victims of gun-related homicide in Chicago since the beginning of the year. This January, specifically, has been the bloodiest in a decade, despite of the city’s tight gun restrictions.  There were 506 homicides in the city last year, a 16% increase from 2011, and Chicago is on track to have over 700 murders in 2013 alone.  Even though Chicago has extremely strict gun regulations, the city has failed to curb its gun violence.

Obviously, taking guns out of the hands of violent criminals is the ideal, but one must remember that these people are criminals for a reason: they do not care about what laws they break, especially one banning the use of guns. If assault weapons and ammunition magazines over ten rounds are banned, it is unrealistic to think that these laws will stop criminals and the mentally unstable from obtaining these weapons. Before committing a crime, a person is not going to stop and consider the legality of using an illegal assault weapon or a large magazine. They are not worried about breaking the law, as they plan to do just that, be it murder or armed robbery.  Instead of banning certain types of guns and hoping this ends crime, we as a nation need to address mental illness.  Guns only kill people when they are in the hands of an unstable person.

Despite efforts, tightening gun restrictions will not make guns less available to those who want to harm other people. For example, Adam Lanza, the gunman who killed 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut, stole the guns and ammunition he used from his mother, a gun enthusiast. The guns he took were legally registered in Connecticut, a state with very tight gun restrictions. Even so, it is still likely that his mother would still have had the guns, and Lanza would have been able to steal them.

Even if Obama’s planned ban on assault weapons is passed, there will still be many assault weapons in our country. The government can ban the sale of assault weapons, but realistically cannot get rid of them. Collecting every assault weapon that has already been purchased in the country is impossible. Crime will still be high with or without assault rifles, especially in places like Chicago where there are many gangs, and subsequently, a lot of crime and violence. There will still be deadly guns. In 2010, for example, there were about 360 murders in the United States in which the killer used a rifle, while there were about 6,000 murders committed with a handgun.  The number of murders in the U.S. will not decrease if certain kinds of rifles are banned, as many more murders are already committed with a handgun, a firearm that, if it is under 10 rounds, will not be banned.  Those who really wish to commit crimes will not be stopped by new restrictions on guns. Instead, they will keep committing crimes with a gun that is not banned. One more crime will simply be added to the list: carrying an assault weapon, carrying an unlicensed gun, or another offense which will be made illegal under Obama’s proposal.

The only people whose gun use will be affected is the average, law abiding citizen. As NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre pointed out, “the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” If Obama’s proposal does pass, then it will become more difficult for good, responsible people to obtain guns. Crime and atrocities such as what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School will not be lessened by tighter gun laws. While it would be nice if banning some types of rifles and ammuntition could end the gun violence we see in our country today, this is highly unlikely to actually lessen violence.  Our country needs to come up with ways to avoid mass shootings without infringing on the rights given to us in the Second Amendment. Shootings and crimes are not really caused by the sale of guns, but really by issues like mental illness (which Obama’s proposal begins to address), poverty, and the glorification of violence in our culture.