The Trigger Doesn’t Pull Itself

Since the 1960s, Americans have been rallying for change in gun laws in the United States. Protests, parades, and strikes have happened across all fifty states, full of people angry at the violence occurring and the triggers being pulled. The simple answer to the assassinations and murders occurring is to outlaw guns completely or add restrictions on buyers, but with over 98% of guns involved in violent crimes purchased or obtained illegally, we might need to find a different solution.  

The general assumption in the United States recently has been that guns = crime, but I think that a clarification here is important: Illegal guns = crime, because owning or being in possession of a firearm that is unregistered or without obtaining the correct permits before purchasing is illegal in itself. Adding more and more gun control laws won’t help in these situations because people who are planning to commit a crime using a firearm as their weapon aren’t going to obey any laws about guns when they’re already breaking them. 

Studies show that states like California, which has the most firearm laws in the United States, don’t have lower violent crime rates. Mississippi, which is generally considered to have the least amount of firearm laws, actually has much lower violent crime rates than California does. While California has almost 3,000 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people, Mississippi only has 1,700. This is important, considering that over 80% of violent crimes are committed with guns. 

So why aren’t gun control laws helping the crime rates in places like California and Illinois? Probably because most guns used in crimes are illegal, anyway. 

Over 380,000 guns are stolen from gun owners and sellers each year, and there are an estimated 38,000 ghost guns (firearms that are 3D printed or assembled illegally by the owner), according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). That’s 418,000 illegal firearms from stolen guns and ghost guns alone, not counting the 300,000+ firearms that are being smuggled across the United States and Mexico border each year. 

The criminals owning these guns aren’t obeying the current gun control laws anyway, and aren’t going to turn in their guns if more invisible lines are drawn in the sand. They’ll just step over them and continue whatever they’re planning. 

This trend of violence and illegal guns continues outside of the United States as well. Countries like Venezuela, Papua New Guinea, and Haiti are all incredibly dangerous, yet in each of them, it’s illegal for citizens to own guns. The vast majority of murders in these countries are committed with guns, despite the fact that the government has outlawed them for citizens.

If we know all of this, then why are we still stuck on gun control laws as an answer to all of our problems? It seems like an easy solution – ban guns, and violence will go away. But the easy solutions that we’ve been promoting aren’t reality. People who want to do violent things will find a way to do them, whether it’s with a gun or a car or a knife or a metal water bottle. Instead of focusing on banning guns in America, we need to start focusing on how we can stop the next generation of the United States from committing these crimes and resorting to violence. Many school shooters and people attempting to hurt others are on antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication. 

We don’t have a gun problem in our country; we have a mental health and an accountability crisis. We need to figure out how to help people before they get to the point of resorting to inflicting pain and using violence as a solution to their problems. Our next generation of Americans is watching the news and reading the headlines blaming guns for all of our problems – they’re learning that it’s not the people’s fault, it’s the rifles – and that’s a dangerous thing to teach kids. Taking accountability for your actions is an incredibly important value that we’re inadvertently teaching people to avoid. Instead, we need to recognize that the problem isn’t the guns, it’s the people who have decided that violence is the best answer.

That leaves us with our next question: how do we fix that?

Works Cited

Crime in Venezuela – Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Venezuela. Accessed 24 September 2025.

“Chicago shootings this summer 2025: Tracking gun violence across city as weather heats up | Live updates.” ABC7 Chicago, https://abc7chicago.com/live-updates/chicago-shootings-summer-2025-tracking-gun-violence-city-weather-heats-live-updates/16798177/. Accessed 22 September 2025.

“Crime Rate by Country 2025.” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country. Accessed 22 September 2025.

“Crime Rate by State 2025.” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/crime-rate-by-state. Accessed 22 September 2025.

“Gun Laws in Illinois.” Everytown Research & Policy, https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/state/illinois/. Accessed 22 September 2025.

Jusionyte, Ieva. “Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border, New Book by Ieva Jusionyte.” The Watson School of International and Public Affairs.

Kshetri, Nir. “3D Printed Guns are a Growing Threat Around the World.” Tuckson Sentinal.

“NFCTA PART V.” ATF, 11 January 2023, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-part-v-firearm-thefts/download. Accessed 22 September 2025.

“PART III:.” ATF, 27 March 2024, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-part-iii-crime-guns-recovered-and-traced-us/download. Accessed 22 September 2025.

Smith, Steve. “Gun Violence Increases in California.” Pacific Search, https://www.pacificresearch.org/gun-violence-increases-in-california/#:~:text=Only%201.3%20percent%20of%20criminals,by%20criminals%20were%20obtained%20illegally.