Due to the recent events of the Sutherland Springs shooting, Americans are again bumping heads with their own arguments of why or why not guns in the United States should be banned.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, the gunman that entered the First Baptist Church on Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs was armed with a 5.56-millimeter semiautomatic rifle, which he used to brutally kill 26 people and injure 20 others.

Many people may see an event like this one and say that guns should be completely banned, but there is more to the story than that.

A nearby resident heard the gunshots, grabbed his locked-away firearm and proceeded to not only land shots on the shooter but chase him out of the church, leading the shooter to flee, according to an article by the Los Angeles Times.

Without our 2nd Amendment rights, there may have been no immediate chance for any of the victims of the shooting to survive, which is why our right to own a weapon is so important.

One way I believe we can stop mass shootings like this one from happening is to put more restrictions on the types of guns we are able to buy and improve the application process when trying to purchase a firearm.

My biggest concern in the application is the background checking process. According to the same article, the suspect involved in the San Antonio shooting was kicked out of the Air Force for domestic violence but somehow was able to buy four guns between 2014-2017 because of a clerical error made by distributors.

How was a man that was court-martialed for domestic violence able to buy these guns with his past actions? If the distributors of these weapons can figure that out, we should be able to dodge incidents like this one.

Another way to evade possible tragedy is to put restrictions on the weapons we are able to buy from distributors.

Instead of being able to buy a rifle at a local gun shop, laws should be enforced to restrict gun purchases to small handguns and pistols. If someone wanted to buy a semi-automatic rifle, there should be a whole different set of background checks given.

To change the outcome of future events, America needs to restrict gun laws while keeping our essential 2nd Amendment rights intact.