Problem Frame -- Gun Control

While gun violence has een a contentious issue for much longer than the past 5 years, the recent influx of mass shootings and increased media coverage of them has revived the conversation and has prompted politicians to begin discussing forms of gun control that are in line with the current state of affairs. There is a continuum of perspectives on this issue, ranging from light regulation to more drastic forms, but a common desired end in the discussion is to have a safety net for individuals to fall back on in cases of self defense; for many Americans, this involves the use of fire arms in some capacity, by some sort of agent. The costs and consequences of these viewpoints seem very distinctly from each other, with gun-owners arguing firearm use as a more direct, quick solution in emergencies, while gun-control proponents generally argue that with less guns on the streets and a higher level of restriction on owning guns, that many crimes involving their use would cease altogether with the lack of convenience a firearm will provide in committing them. For example, armed robberies of convenience stores would be more difficult to pull off bladed weapons, and the extent of destruction would be less with a weapon of lower risk.Surely, some sort of resolution can be found somewhere in the middle of these two rhetorical encampments, with a heightened focus on registration and buyer screening as opposed to am obligatory disarming of a massive population.