(U-WIRE) TUCSON, Ariz. – Guns kill people. Guns kill animals. Guns are for killing. There is no getting around that fact. Every year in this country, people are murdered with guns. Rifles, pistols, revolvers, semi-automatic weapons. All these types of guns are involved in murders, suicides, robberies, hunting and even accidental shootings. Children are killed by guns, the elderly are killed by guns, the middle-aged and even the youthful are killed by guns. Rich or poor, when a person is shot with a gun, it is dangerous and possibly deadly.

In 1994 alone, there were 38,505 firearm-related deaths. This number includes homicides, suicides and unintentional deaths. The Centers for Disease Control also estimates that for every gun-related fatality, there are at least three gun-related non-fatal injuries. Eighty percent of these gun-related injuries are treated with money provided by the taxpayers of America. Guns kill more people under the age of 24 than motor vehicles. Persons who live in homes with guns have a suicide rate five times greater than people who do not. Clearly, firearms are dangerous and deadly. The United States has the proud distinction of being the richest industrialized nation with the highest rate of gun-related fatalities. Go USA!

I personally do not care to own or ever handle a gun. There are many people who feel as I do, but there is a stronger element of the American culture that embraces it right to own firearms and will continue to fight tirelessly to protect that right.

Americans who want to protect their gun-ownership rights have a stronger voice in Congress. The NRA is undeniably one of the most prominent and successful conservative lobbyists in Washington today. In a town where money speaks volumes, the NRA can afford to keep talking. In the 1997-98 election cycle alone, the NRA and other gun-ownership advocates contributed $1.8 million to congressional campaigns.

Compare that figure to the amount gun-control advocates contributed in the same year – only $150,364 – and you can see how gun owners and their supporters seem to have the political upper-hand in Washington.

This majority in Washington will resist any tighter restrictions on gun ownership. While I do not agree with them in principle, I see their point. The violence in this nation will not be helped by some hard-to-enforce, mandatory waiting period. The violence in the U.S. runs too deeply to be stopped at this late stage by restrictions. Gun violence will only change when society decides to limit its use of firearms.

There will always be that element of American society that wants to hold onto its guns. They will say that it’s their right to shoot cans for sport, or hunt, or to start another revolutionary war. This is their choice. However, if the majority of American people are willing to change their opinions of gun ownership after years of tradition, then maybe we might build a nation of responsible, non-violent people. It has to start with this generation.

Each of us must make a personal choice about guns. We must not buy guns or embrace violence. We must teach our children how to resolve conflicts peacefully. We must stop glorifying gun violence in our forms of entertainment. We must change our romanticizing of America’s gun-rich past and look to a gun-sensible future. Even if we were to pass the tightest restrictions on guns possible, they would do nothing to stop the violence in America.

If we want a peaceful future, we, as a nation, must first choose to live without guns, not be forced unwillingly to do so by legislation. I am not old enough to remember prohibition, but I think we are all aware of how fiercely people resist well-intentioned legislation when they are not behind it themselves.

-Lora J. Machel, Arizona Daily Wildcat (U. of Arizona)