By Virginia Cooper

Sept. 16 was another quiet Monday morning in Washington D.C., but this was not the case at a Washington Navy yard; Aaron Alexis shot and killed 13 people, while injuring several others.

He had a low government security clearance but still had access to the Navy yard, which was his place to massacre. When you think about D.C. and guns you associate that relationship with one of the most protective places in the nation, but now this has become a distant illusion.

Several days earlier, Alexis went to a shooting range, practiced on a target board, and purchased a gun with ammunition. He passed the background check, but would he have passed a mental stability test, if we had one? He might have appeared to be just another average, sane man buying a gun, but like many others out there armed with weapons, he was not “all there.” Some say he had been having symptoms of schizophrenia. According to the Washington Post, Alexis “scratched the words ‘End the torment!’ on the barrel of the shotgun he used.” If we had listened to him, families of those killed would not be mourning the death of their loved ones right now.

As we sacrifice our nation’s safety, most Americans sit back and let it happen. It has become as easy as walking around the corner to a local gun store. Yes, there are protocols of safety these businesses follow, but shouldn’t more precaution be taken? What if every person who wanted to purchase a gun had to undergo a series of tests to make sure they are mentally stable enough to own a firearm capable of destruction. This scenario of safety would cost more for businesses, the government, and even cost people time. Although in this day and age, as we sink into debt for protecting our safety over in the Middle East, I feel sacrificing more of the dollar for protecting our Americans, here at home, should be taken.

Shootings in ordinary places with the killing of ordinary people have become all too common. Our government promotes safety as a number one goal. We walk through the airport with cameras watching our every move and security scanning examining every part of us, but purchasing a gun is not as closely watched. We walk into stores with cameras following us, police standing at every corner at a major event or sports game. The police sacrifice their lives for us, and lately they have failed to protect us. That is not their fault; it is this gun issue’s fault. Police try to protect us, but Americans have monopolized the system and made guns so available for their own use. These innocent people try their hardest every day to protect, but the battle is being lost almost every time. Ordinary people are getting ahold of guns and then the battle has become equal. How do we protect ourselves, when almost anyone can have a gun?

I would not want guns to fall into the hands of solely our government and be controlled by a select group, but in order to protect our nation we should make every step of purchasing guns closely watched, no matter what it takes. Whether it is a mental stability test or not, safety should remain our nation’s number one goal. More importantly, safety for Americans sitting in their homes, rather than protecting us from terrorism, should be our number one goal.

We, as a united nation, are responsible for these mass shootings. Our government makes it easy for adults with clean backgrounds to purchase guns. Although we might feel safer when we are sitting in our homes gawking over the television, people on the outside are buying guns and making plans to kill innocent people. It might just be our nation’s fault for the crime Aaron Alexis committed. We did basically hand him the means, never questioned his motive, and the opportunity was open to him. Right under our noses he passed by, and at a Navy yard full of sitting ducks, he took his reasons for murder out on innocent bystanders.