This past year the world has been rocked by tragedy after tragedy, and many people have taken to pointing fingers instead of looking for solutions.

The truth is this: there will never be a completely fool-proof solution.

I cannot imagine what many families have been forced to go through this year, I will not pretend to understand the type of distress they have all felt, but there are certain actions being taken that will not help any of them.

The government could take away guns, sure, but criminals are criminals. If a man wants to murder a woman, not being able to legally buy a gun will not stop him. The word “crime” itself is defined by the Merriam-Webster English dictionary as “an act or the commission of an act that is forbidden or the omission of a duty that is commanded by a public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” How can it be believed that new laws will help, when by definition a criminal, committing a crime, does not obey the laws in the first place? The most common weapon used in violent crimes is actually not even a gun, but a baseball bat.

I will agree that there could be more done to prevent weapons from getting into the hands of dangerous or mentally ill Americans. At the moment, many private gun shows do not require background checks for people to purchase weapons. This, in my opinion, is an issue that could be resolved by a bill requiring background checks at these events. But even this will not be enough.

This one problem, however, should not compel our leaders to push for extreme legislation such as Senator Dianne Feinstein has. Her proposed bill would expand on requirements from a previous, similar bill and would now make illegal any semi-automatic,  centerfire, or rimfire rifle that is less than 30 inches long. It would also outlaw semi-automatic handguns with detachable magazines, which happen to be the most common handguns in circulation for personal protection.

I am not just some crazy gun-nut out here trying to force rifles upon the peace-loving citizens of America. My father works for the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and my mother is a former ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agent. My father carries a government issue handgun at all times, and can legally carry it in all fifty states. His duty handgun is semi-automatic, and has a detachable magazine.

It is every American’s second amendment right to bear arms. This is one feature of American society that makes us unique, makes us special. We have the right to decide how to defend ourselves. Last April in Salt Lake City, Utah, a man entered a marketplace and purchased a knife, which he then used to attack and harm several people. Before he was able to stab many shoppers, however, a citizen carrying a concealed weapon told the man to drop his knife or be shot. The man obeyed and was apprehended by the citizen until the police arrived. This is one time where no shots were fired, but a huge problem was prevented just by one man using his gun.

It is a shame that so many atrocities could be committed in such a small amount of time, or at all, and it just shows that we need to focus on protecting our futures better. Instead of reacting to crimes, we need to prevent them.

Many commercial pilots are trained in weapons handling and actually carry handguns in their cockpits. I don’t see Americans up-in-arms about this happening, so I don’t think it’s too big of a stretch for some teachers to one day carry firearms.

There is an example of this already happening; Sherriff Joe Arpaio from Maricopa County, Arizona, is one man hoping to make a difference. He has a group of volunteers in his office that make up his “posse.” From this group of people, about 3,000 will be patrolling the 59 schools Arpaio oversees, and of this about 500 will be armed.

I’m not saying we need extreme change in every school district in the US, but I am saying we need something. It is not right to blame guns for every crime committed using them. It is also not right to say the only problem is the easy access to dangerous items so many people have.

The problem starts and ends with one thing: us. Before we can fix anything else, we need to fix ourselves.