Stopping mass shootings is in the president and Congress’ agenda as the year begins. Today, a group lead by Vice President Joseph Biden will present proposals to the president concerning how our country can best prevent future shootings.

There were 16 mass shootings in 2012, according to The Nation magazine.

To prevent further mass shootings, legislation needs to be passed to stop unqualified people from possessing guns. Congress will need to agree on how they view the nature of the problem, but this is unlikely.

Gun rights activists have continually blamed the individual for the problem, rather than face the hard facts. The problem is not the access of guns, but the people who use them.

Those who favor further gun restrictions see beyond the individual. They see a person who is able to kill by having a gun. Gun control believers see beyond an individual incident, linking our nation’s problem with multiple mass shootings. A commonality in these tragedies is unqualified people possessing guns.

The opposite way these two sides see gun violence will cause little meaningful action to happen in Congress. Already in progress is a bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein to stop the sale of assault and military-style weapons, which have been used in past mass shootings. Other legislation has been proposed to limit the number of bullets in a magazine.

The National Rifle Association initially pledged “meaningful action” to stop school shootings after the Sandy Hook shooting in December. Violent video games and movies were to blame, not easy access to guns. The NRA failed to explain why this is a unique American problem, while other countries with violence in video games and movies are not suffering the same problem.

The NRA and its supporters miss the fact that mass shootings are not confined to schools. America not only has a problem with school shootings, but with mass shootings overall.

The NRA is either blind to the pattern of shootings or is unable to accept the similarities. They view any restrictions on owning guns as a violation of the Second Amendment. It is no surprise they have tried to place blame on our culture, rather than the real culprit.

Gun rights activists have wanted to use Sandy Hook to highlight the need for greater school security. Sen. Barbara Boxer has proposed a $50 million plan to put more police officers in schools.

There is no level of security that will stop mass shootings from happening. We can station metal detectors, police officers and other security mechanisms everywhere. Mass shootings do not just happen in schools. They happen in malls, movie theaters and parking lots. School security alone will not stop these tragedies in the future.

People are often shocked that something like this could happen – saying Newtown was the last place a mass shooting should take place. With the widespread access to guns, mass shootings can happen anywhere and at any time. Quiet towns and busy cities are all targets.

It would be nice to hope for a solution to this country’s gun control issue, but there is no realistic way it will happen with the new Congress. It is the same as the old one – unable to escape the grip of gun rights activists who care more about their rights to possess outrageous firearms than trying to stop deadly shootings.

When a congresswoman was shot, little was done. When 12 people were killed in a movie theater, little was done. More shootings will continue as Congress sits idly by, unable to come to a consensus on how to respond.

Harmen Rockler is a senior newspaper and online journalism and political science major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at horockle@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @LeftofBoston.

Published on January 15, 2013 at 1:30 am