Violence at the hand of a gunman has been on the rise in current news lately.

On Monday September 14, professor Shannon Lamb from Delta State University in Mississippi shot professor Ethan Schmidt, who is also teaches at the school.

On Wednesday August 26 reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward of WDBJ-TV in Virginia were shot and killed on live TV.

Over Labor Day weekend, shootings spread out in Chicago left eight people dead while 46 others were wounded from shots.

Even earlier in the year there were nine dead and 53-wounded throughout Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend.

One of the nine included a 7-year-old boy who was shot while watching fireworks with his father.

On our own campus there was a shooting on Sept. 15 in 2013 at a Phi Beta Sigma party that luckily ended in no deaths or injuries. 

With the media bringing attention to the staggering stories about gun control, arguments have consequently been on the rise as well.

Communities are trying to place blame on someone but where should the blame lie? Gun control has been an issue for many years now.

On one side, we have those who believe guns should be made illegal, while on the other hand we have those who believe making guns illegal will not alter the crime rates that involve gunmen but rather take away the protection granted to those who want it.

The argument has made headlines as well as making a pretty huge controversy on social media.

Major points are made such as illegal drugs being mass distributed and used without much help to decrease the usage coming from the idea that they are illegal.

There is also the terrifying thought of being told a person cannot legally have guns to protect themselves anymore from those who illegally obtain them.

Consider a future where legally owning a gun is socially acceptable across the board. The legality of the gun would not have saved reporter Alison Parker because she would not have had a gun on her during a live news report.

Also, the gun that was used during the attack was purchased legally.

In this instance, making the gun illegal would not have changed the outcome of the scenario.

Now change your perspective around and consider a future where guns are illegal. Does it change the outcome of the holiday weekends gone wrong in Chicago that were mentioned earlier?

I found a statistic in an article in The Trace written by Adam Sege reporting that in the first six months of 2015, officers in Chicago recovered 3,470 illegal guns, or one gun every hour and 15 minutes.

With that many guns being recovered the number of illegal guns actually in Chicago will be higher.

Though these guns were obtained illegally, they were still being distributed and used, therefore making guns illegal does not seem like it will eliminate the increase in gunmen orientated crimes. 

In fact, if we make guns illegal we simply will be taking guns out of the hands of the innocent who are trying to protect themselves.

In looking at both possible futures neither will provide for a concrete solution nor will either future appease both sides of the controversy so where do we go as a country from here?

For now the police departments have increased their street activity.

The solution is out there, but if you are anything like me, you will not be the one to find it since you are sitting on the fence.