By Katie Matero

According to USA Today, there have been over 146 mass shootings and 186 mass killings from January 2006 through February 2013. When the information was collected by USA Today, there had only been two shootings at that point in 2013.

A Reddit page called “Guns Are Cool” has been continually compiling a list of mass shootings in 2013 alone, and as of Oct. 31 there have been 305 shootings this year.

Several of these mass shootings have made national news, causing the issue of gun control to be brought up again and again, and yet no new laws have been passed.

The Constitution may say Americans have the right to bear arms, but if they are using firearms to kill innocent civilians, then something is not working the way it was intended. American politicians need to look beyond the Constitution and see the destruction gun violence is causing our country.

I do not believe that America’s freedom to use firearms should be taken away, but I do believe that gun owners need to go through a more thorough process in order to purchase a gun than they do now.

Currently, if I wanted to buy a shotgun, all I would have to do is walk into a gun store, pick out my weapon, and fill out a six page form. But that is only if I wanted to do it legally.

Gun owners have taken to selling their firearms on various websites, such as GunBroker.com, a site which functions similarly to eBay.

According to the Daily Beast, there have also been gun owners who post their items for sale through Instagram, using hashtags to advertise and publicize their products.

While Instagram has no specific policy against using their services to market items, it is certainly not how I want guns to be distributed.

Gun sales need to be monitored and enforced more strictly than it is now. It is not okay that weapons can be purchased on the internet from former owners without going through any type of process.