Ryan Mecca | A country with some of the country’s strictest gun laws could not stop this shooting

         On Friday, Gary Martin shot 5 people in Illinois, the state with the strictest gun laws. While Illinois has very protective measures to ensure that guns and gun licenses don’t get into the wrong hands, Gary Martin was still able to obtain both of these things. In order to purchase a gun, one must apply for a FOID card, where a background check is done of the applicant. Somehow, Martin’s previous felonies were not recorded in the databased used, allowing him to get the FOID card regardless of his crimes. It’s important for Illinois to now improve the system of background records in order to ensure that no possible crimes are missed. So far there is no way for the government to see whether or not convicted individuals surrendered their weapons to police.
         Gun laws in the U.S. have been up for debate recently, particularly gaining momentum after the Parkland school shooting. This article is directed towards the those who believe that gun violence can be solved with legislature, in order to prove otherwise. It allows us to see that regardless of strong gun restrictions, deadly shooting such as this will still occur and there is really no way for us to completely perfect the system, as there will always be flaws. The author, Emanuella Grinberg, appears to support the gun control movement, however, based on the main point made in the article, most likely does not believe that strict laws will reduce shootings in our country.
         Just like no matter the amount of legislature there isn’t restricting the use of guns in the U.S., there will always be gun violence, no matter how much industrial innovation there was during the Roaring 20s, nothing prevented the Great Depression. During the 20s, there were many new industries on the rise such as the automobile, steel, aircraft industries and the creation of new labor-saving products such as the washing machine, however, this mass production drove prices down, leading to the biggest stock crash in U.S. history.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/23/us/gun-laws-illinois-shooting/index.html