We have been taught to think that violence will keep us safe. We believe that owning a gun, or any kind of weapon really, will protect ourselves and our family.

But if you just think about it, it’s not that hard to realize how backward that is. Promoting violence isn’t going to keep us safe. I say violence because guns bring with them a potential for violence. Allowing private citizens to own and use guns isn’t the way to stop or even slow the homicide rate. I feel that if we citizens want to keep people safe — our families, our friends, or even the strangers we meet in the supermarket — it’s time for us to relinquish our right to bear arms.

It’s time to give up guns.

Frankly, they’re dangerous and their numbers are increasing. According to data released from firearms manufacturers in 2010, there were at least 300 million guns in circulation around the country, or nearly one per citizen. Alarming, right? Like I said earlier, they promote violence instead of peace, and statistics have proven that people who own guns are more likely to be killed by a gun. Very possibly by their very own.

And that’s why it’s time to remove them as a variable in our society. Sure, guns do police or special forces some good, but how often do average citizens need to use a gun to defend themselves from a threat? How often is there actually a threat worthy of brandishing a gun? I am not naive to the dangers that exist in the world, but I think that with a modicum of common sense and a whole lot of awareness, those situations can be easily avoided. And they can be handled without the use of a gun.

We’ve all read about innocent people who have died because of lax gun laws, we’ve all seen the aftermath.

There are other countries whose homicide rates are much higher than ours — Honduras for example, with the United States somewhere in the middle — but since 1966 the United States has had 266 mass shootings, the latest in the long line being the shooting in Newtown, CT. Literally hundreds of people have died who had their whole lives ahead of them. It’s time to stop waiting. A serious change needs to be made and it needs to be made now.

I know that guns will likely never be completely illegal to own in this country, and I doubt the gun laws will change fast enough to keep everyone happy. There will, of course, be the people who are angry with any compromise we hopefully reach, and there will be those who can content themselves with it.

I have my ideals, and as much as I would love to see those fully realized, I can content myself with the fact that the president is putting forth a real effort to keep the people safe. Propaganda released by pro-gun activists claims that the president is trying to dismantle the rights we are so lucky to have as Americans, starting with making guns illegal. And as a journalist I can understand worrying about losing a right issued to us by our forefathers. I would be angry if someone tried to take away my freedom of speech. And I admit that outlawing guns is an extreme measure, as I’m sure the president and government would admit as well. But when the alternative is a continually growing number of American homicides, how extreme is extreme?

It’s hard to prove that taking away guns makes people any safer because of all the other causes of homicides. Logically it makes sense, though: take away the weapons and it gets harder for people to hurt you. The thing is we need everybody to realize this. We need everybody to reach some kind of decent consensus regardless of their stance on the issue, so that our people can feel safe when they go to the mall, or walk onto a school campus. Maybe that does mean being a law abiding citizen, but it’s time for peace. And giving up our weapons is only a start.