Virginia Tech Shooting Leaves 33 Dead was the headline of the New York Times on

April 16, 2007. Witnesses describe the scene as mass chaos and unimaginable horror as some
students were lined up and shot. Others jumped out of windows to escape, or crouched on floors
to take cover (Hauser). After this event, Congress tried to pass new legislation involving gun
control. Laws like reducing magazine size, which will not stop criminals from using firearms for
violence, or other laws that will not stop them from obtaining them. The best way to improve gun
safety is to revise the process of background checks.
Studies have shown that the most important thing that we can do to improve firearm
safety is to require a criminal background check on every firearm that is purchased, instead of
only requiring them for federally licensed gun dealers as well as increasing the difficulty of the
background checks. In 17 states that require criminal background checks on all firearms sales,
46% fewer women are shot to death by their partners, 48% fewer on-duty police officers shot and
killed, 48% fewer people commit suicide with firearms, and there is a 48% decrease in gun
trafficking (Everytown for Gun Safety). These studies show that the effectiveness of increasingly
intense background checks helped reduce the amount of homicides and suicides that took place
with firearms. The facts are evident; lawmakers just have to evaluate the facts.
The Federal Government only requires background checks to take place with licensed
firearms dealers. The downside to this law is that at private gun dealers like a gun show or flea
market, for example, are not required to do back ground checks, which allow anyone with the
right amount of money to buy one (Everytown for Gun Safety). My solution to this problem
wouldnt be to restrict the purchase of firearms, but make background checks required at all
times as well as improve the check process by looking at family history, not just individual

history. The Sandy Hook school shooter obtained two firearms, both belonged to his parents, but
because he lived with them he had almost unlimited access to them.
Some might argue that making background checks more intense wouldnt affect the rate
of crimes carried out with a firearm. First, the statistics do show that making them required and
more intensive does decrease the rate of crimes carried out with a deadly weapon. Second, the
Virginia Tech school shooter was found by a court of law to be severely mentally ill, but because
that information never made its way into the federal court system, it wasnt included in the
purchase of his first firearm. Also, the VT shooter bought his second gun on the internet which
wasnt federally mandated to do background checks. This one flaw in the background check
system cost 33 people their lives on one day; imagine how many lives it has taken in years past.
Third and finally, the FBI clears a certain number of background checks in an allotted period of
time. If there was a department under the FBI thats purpose was background checks alone,
imagine how different the crime rates would be.
Someone else might contest that one person in good standing might buy a firearm for a
criminal. Unless these criminals friends are the cleanest, most unsuspicious people, the
criminals friend will also have a difficult time purchasing as firearm. Also, a criminals family
would also have a excruciatingly hard time buying a firearm for their son/daughter. It would be
very awkward to ask a sibling or parent to purchase a firearm, and extremely unlikely for them to
say yes.
Legislation that would require criminal background checks every time a firearm is
purchased would be a massive improvement along with making the background checks more
intensive. If there are positive statistics to support these conclusions, then shouldnt we be

pushing to implement them now? Have a nice chat with the congressmen for your town and
propose that this try to become a solution used by the Federal Government.