Since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, 144 school shootings or gun related incidents on school property have occurred in the United States. As students, we worry that a local school could easily be next on the long and bloody list if nothing is done.

One of the most glaring incidents in our minds is the Oct. 1 shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, in which shooter Christopher Harper-Mercer killed nine, injured nine others, and then killed himself. Six of Harper-Mercer’s guns were found on the college campus, and seven more were found in his home, all of them legally obtained.

The United States’ National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has stopped over two million ineligible persons, such as convicted felons, from legally purchasing guns. These background checks usually take a just few minutes to complete, during which time an agent checks several databases to see if a prospective buyer is eligible.

Generally, the severely or dangerously mentally ill are prohibited from buying guns by the NICS.

Harper-Mercer had a history of mental illness, for which he had previously sought treatment, yet he was allowed to obtain 13 guns anyway. For a normal person, we believe 13 firearms is excessive; for a mentally ill person, even more so.

Most mentally ill people do not act violently on account of their illnesses, but there is always a chance, however small, that they might. Therefore, when it comes to ownership of an object that can be used to kill, stricter background checks should be enforced on possible owners, regardless of their mental health statuses.

Japanese gun laws could help us form the beginnings of a solution. In 2008, 12,000 people in the United States died because of gun violence. In Japan, just 11 people were killed by guns in the same year, simply because the Japanese are more prepared to handle gun-related crime.

We would not go so far as to prohibit almost all guns the way Japan has, but we would urge Americans seeking to buy guns to not only take mandatory gun classes, but also pass required shooting, drug, and mental fitness tests, plus a background check that is much more rigorous than the one the United States currently requires.

Many Americans tout their Second Amendment right to own a firearm as a source of pride and belief in rugged “Americanness.” But in possessing this right, we forget that guns have more uses than protection.

Guns can be used to kill innocent people with blinding cowardice and callousness at the simple pull of a trigger. As students, we feel that our safety both on and off campus matters more than an individual’s desire to own a firearm.

Americans will never give up their guns entirely, and we do not ask them to. We also acknowledge that criminals will find ways to obtain firearms illegally regardless of the government’s actions. But we see that stricter federal gun control policies and better background checks will keep guns from falling into hands that seem harmless at first, but turn violent later.