Virginia Beach Shooting Made Me Think More About Gun Control

I am originally from the New Bedford area, but I lived in Virginia for quite some time. I had lots of friends at the beach the day the latest mass shooting happened. It was scary to think that my friends may have been anywhere near this, or worse, could have been victims. I guess you could say this hit a little too close to home for me.

I started calling everyone I knew that was in Virginia Beach to make sure they were ok. It's that small amount of time between when you hear what happened on the national news, but don't yet know the names of those involved, that my heart was racing and tons of questions and possibilities of what could have happened were running through my head.

After I spent about an hour and a half contacting everyone I knew that was in the area at the time, I finally took a deep breath and started thinking about what everyone else has been thinking about for years now: when will this stop?

What is it that will make this stop? Yeah, I wish we lived in a world with butterflies and rainbows, but we don't. Guns are here and here to stay. What I'd like to see happen is getting some control over it.

Am I for more restrictions? Or at least making it more difficult to get your hands on guns? Absolutely. Did you know that in Iceland it actually takes an eight-month process to be able to purchase a firearm? Even after this process, civilians are only allowed to purchase certain guns. Most people in Iceland need guns to hunt, so they can feed themselves. Puts things in perspective right?

What are the resolutions to this? I don't pretend to know, but any action is progress, right? Or do we need to rip some kind of Band-Aid?