Many students say the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is in need of an update, with more young people advocating stricter gun laws in light of the increase in mass shootings that continue to plague the nation.
According to one survey by Ammo.com, more than half of American homes currently have an adult who owns a gun, with an estimate showing that nearly 83 million people in 2023 owned at least one firearm nationwide. Yet just over 6 million of those individual gun owners have registered their firearms, according to the data.
On the same day that Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah, 16-year-old Desmond Holly opened fire, killing two and injuring others at Evergreen High School in Colorado. Already in 2025, the U.S. has seen some 350 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The trends are worrisome, say students at Diablo Valley College, and many feel a change in regulations is necessary at this point to limit guns for public safety.
“I am very strongly supportive if the law could [see] changes, or be like Japan, where possessing a gun you will have to go through a lot of examinations,” said Hideo Nakano, who provides counseling at DVC Career and Transfer Services while also studying psychology.
“I would like to repeal the Second Amendment, if that is possible,” he said. But in the meantime, “we need better training for police officers. I feel like some states only do a few weeks of training and put [officers] in public, and they need way more training than that.”
Nakano added, “I disagree with the new law being debated in Texas that seeks to arm teachers in the classroom, they will only ‘add fuel’ to the matter.”
“What if the teacher happened to have a bad day and was the one to use the gun on students in class?” said Nakano. “The solution is clear: fewer guns, as much as possible, will be life-saving.”
Another student worker and political science major at DVC, Giovanni Brown, said she also supports implementing new gun laws, but only if the law applies new rules to police as well. For example, she said, “police could have regulations on pepper spray canisters, tear gas and less lethal weapons.”
“I definitely think that the original authors of the Second Amendment weren’t thinking of AK-47s casually being on the street, like what is going on in Florida, where you can see people in parking lots, freeways, and on motorcycles, [where] they got these big old guns on their back,” said Brown.
“I personally believe that if the government is able to pass a new law on policing, a lot of gun owners will be willing to adopt new changes, for they will feel safer.”
The problem, Brown added, is that “it takes such a large majority of the Senate and the House to agree on amending new changes.”
“I genuinely don’t think that the new gun laws will be passable anytime soon,” she said. “However, I do think that in some way the amendment needs to be altered.”
Alburto Iglejias, majoring in psychology at DVC, said he believed “the Second Amendment will always be persistent, but [there] should specifically be a ban on using high-powered weapons instead.”
“Speaking of gun safety, I understand the need to purchase a firearm to protect oneself, as it is what gun owners will always defend,” said Iglejias.
“But people do not need to have these heavy-rounded weapons that will make them feel they have all the power, control, driven motivation, and ideas to commit masked crimes. This ties to the notion that teachers should be armed in classrooms,” he added.
“There are some teachers who might not be properly equipped even to handle weapons. Arming teachers in the classroom is not what needs to be done.”
For Nakano, the question of changing gun ownership laws is a straightforward one — even if the country isn’t ready to embrace it.
“I am a pacifist who is opposed to violence,” he said, “so personally I would prefer to outlaw guns.”