The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which everyone can remember and care about, regardless of their politics and feelings about guns, was a horrible and unthinkable tragedy. Yet, in the days that followed, Americans found themselves bitterly divided on the issue of gun control. Gun control advocates argue that we need tighter control over who can purchase guns and other weapons, that some weapons should only be in the hands of law enforcement and military personnel, and that the proliferation of firearms in our streets has made America unsafe. They signed petitions, called for gun control legislation, and pointed out that Sandy Hook was just one in a long line of massacres that occurred when guns were turned on innocent people. Opponents of gun control felt threatened by this and argued that their Second Amendment right to bear arms was vulnerable and gun control would leave them defenseless against an oppressive government trying to impose its will. As the federal government held hearings on gun control, the gun lobby argued that if stricter gun control were imposed, criminals would have guns, but law-abiding citizens would not. Opponents of gun control viewed training and arming teachers and having armed guards in schools as the solution to the problem of school shootings. What did the two sides agree on? Little other than that, our society needed better mental health care and screening in order to prevent similar tragedies in the future. However, they disagreed on who would provide these mental health services and who would pay for them, so this issue was also controversial. If we step away from the topic for a moment and look at the conflict over gun control through a sociological perspective......middle of paper...ms? What does it mean to endure them? At least with the First Amendment we know exactly where we stand: free speech. It couldn't be clearer. But the right to bear arms leaves the Second Amendment open to different interpretations. We need permits to carry a concealed weapon. Do we need permits for knives? No. Yet both can, and often do, cause death. We can own a pistol, a rifle, a machine gun, a machete and dozens of other tools for killing, even with our bare hands. So, gun control is a debate in our country that makes no sense unless we expand prohibition or acceptance to include all items that could cause harm or death, which would ultimately be nearly impossible to accomplish. Do we want to end up being a prison on the outside too? We cannot control the thought processes of others, only that person can control what they want to do or intend to act on.