Gun control has been a long controversial debate for centuries and especially becomes a hot topic whenever acts of gun violence occur on our soil.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, The National Rifle Association proposed putting more guns in schools. Wayne LaPierre, American author and long-time advocate of the right to bear arms, insists that guns in schools would most effectively protect children from school shootings. With recent  gun violence, like the Lafayette theater shooting and the Charleston church shooting, politicians and gun rights activists are now calling for guns in churches and guns in movie theaters. Guns everywhere.

There is a notion that the more guns we have, the better protected we are against violence. But the National Gun Victims Action Council conducted a study that contradicts this idea. This advocacy group devoted to enacting sensible gun laws found that proper training and education is key to successfully and effectively using a fire arm. The title of their study, “Carrying a Gun in Public Does Not Provide Self Defense.”

They placed an armed police officer in a mock carjacking scenario. When the carjacker placed his hand over his assumed gun on his belt, the officer drew his firearm and pointed it directly at him. It wasn’t until the carjacker pulled his gun out that the officer pulled his trigger.

Next, they placed an armed civilian in the exact same scenario, except this time, the outcome was different. The woman stood with her firearm by her side while the carjacker threatened to pull his gun on her. When he finally did, she never had the chance to raise her gun and defend herself. She was “shot dead.”

The study continues to show how civilians would typically act in a situation where they needed to defend themselves against violence using a firearm, in comparison to trained police officers.

As stated by the Washington Post, “They found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, people without firearms training performed poorly in the scenarios. They didn’t take cover. They didn’t attempt to issue commands to their assailants. Their trigger fingers were either too itchy — they shot innocent bystanders or unarmed people, or not itchy enough — they didn’t shoot armed assailants until they were already being shot at.”

It’s clear that there is plenty of middle ground between our Second Amendment rights and the requiring of guns in all public places. Watch the video below and share your thoughts with us.

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