This story was first published December, 2013.  There have been six recent school shootings in October 2015. Research shows there have been 150 school shootings. This article about gun control seems relevant now.  

“Tragedy, danger and frustration!”, said Ms. Nancy Wilkie, a counselor at Unis Middle School. She said this when she heard that the FBI crime database reported 43 mass shootings in the past four years. The statistic comes from a study for Mayors Against Illegal Guns. That’s one mass shooting per month.

The U.S. government needs to do many things to protect people from assault rifles.

“This would slow down a lot of shooting” said Sahar Nasser. The reason that this is a good thing is because after you shoot your 10 bullets, you have to reload. Automatic rifle can shoot 40-60 rounds in one minute.

There are many thing that can be done to make assault rifles safer. The one that is most important is restricting the amount of ammo they can use. The amount of ammo the gun should take is about 10, according to assault weapon.com.

The next thing is to limit the number of assault rifles out in the hand of people.

“The most a person should be able to have is one,” said Ziad Saleh. This may seem like a low number, but is an excellent number. The perfect example is the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting. The shooter, Adam Lanza, killed his mother Nancy Lanza and went to the school with several weapons and opened fire. Fewer weapons mean less danger.

There are also some things that can be done to make these guns safer. The first thing that can be done is ban military-style stocks. The stock is part of the problem. The stock helps give better support and shot accuracy.

The second thing that can be done is ban flash hiders. The flash hider conceals the sparks from the gun and makes the gun quieter.

The last thing is to ban pistol grips. They let shooters fire quicker.

For many of the shootings they have said the shooter has had some type of mental illness. For this, the government should have citizens tested before they can get guns.

There are many thing that can make these guns safer and lessen the possibility of mass shootings.

Hussein Hacham

Unis Middle School Journalist