Guns, through the second amendment right to bear arms, have been a consistently – and more often than not, heated – debate in the political landscape of the United States of America. While there have been many proposed policies with the intent of limiting the usage and availability of certain, and in some cases all, firearms, the right to bear arms withstands. This fact of the legality of firearms withstanding, coupled with the figure that a very large amount of American citizens own firearms prompts the necessity of promoting firearms training as well as education.
To put the issue into context, according to Pew Research Center around 32% (⅓) of adults claim that they own a firearm, with another 10% stating that while they do not personally own a firearm, someone else in the household does. As of 2020, an estimated 433.9 million firearms are in civilian ownership. This figure means that there are more firearms in the United States than there are civilians (around 331.9 million). Most of these gun owners reside in “red states”, such as Montana and Alabama. Furthermore, according to the World Population Review, the United States came in second place when it came to gun related deaths, with 37,040 reported deaths occurring in 2019. This pales to the United State’s record 48,830 reported deaths from gun related injuries in 2021. In the current year of 2023, 42,860 individuals have died in gun related incidents, and an agonizing 653 mass shootings have taken place. While the majority of the “deadliest” mass shootings have taken place within historically red states (Texas has been the home of half of the ten deadliest mass shootings), data shows that the states with the highest number of overall mass shootings include a number of historically blue states as well (California has been the home to the most overall mass shootings between 1982 and 2023). This points towards the idea that this is a nationwide issue, not just a political red state vs. blue state debate.
With these statistics put into context, the issue of proper firearm training and education becomes even higher of a priority. As long as the second amendment right to bear arms withstands legality in the United States, there is a direct need for an increased focus in the areas of firearm training and firearm education. This of course is proposed in the hope that this will lead to a decrease in firearm related accidents, and in turn gun related injuries and gun related deaths. Firearm education, specifically, in conjunction with the thankfully increasing presence of psychological services will be able to combat the sickening act of mass shootings and malicious violence. Thankfully, these issues have become increasingly discussed in the political and social landscape already. In addition, these issues have prompted the creation of a resource such as a laser firearms training system, or more simply put, a home shooting simulator. Training using simulators such as this provides a vast amount of potential regarding the future of gun safety, training, and education. Not only do they help achieve these goals, but they also provide a much safer way of applying and practicing these principles, since such simulators are based on the dry fire principle. This in turn directly combats the risk of the aforementioned danger of accidents, injuries, and deaths that may result from a firearm. As these technologies continue to advance, one can rest assured that a brighter future lies ahead.