“‘No way to prevent this,’ says only nation where this regularly happens.”

The Onion’s satirical news headline featured every time a mass shooting occurs in America is not so satirical anymore.

In recent years, the amount of mass shootings in America and the recent Texas shooting has drove many to call out a believed lack of gun control. Around the world, many countries have instituted strict gun laws that some argue have prevented gun violence. The Texas shooting has also caused many Americans to look to congress for answers on how to prevent such violence.

On Sunday, Nov. 5, the world mourned for yet another mass shooting in America. A small town in Texas, Sutherland Springs, lost 26 people after a gunman entered a church service and began firing. The ages of the people shot ranged from 18 months to 77 years.

Despite this being the deadliest mass shooting in Texas’s history, it isn’t the United States’s deadliest. A little over a month ago, the world lost a total of 58 people to the Las Vegas shooting, and from that stemmed 546 non-fatal injuries. Not to mention, in 2016, 49 people died at in the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. In 2015, 14 people were killed in the San Bernardino shooting. Out of the 30 deadliest mass shootings dating back to 1949, 18 took place in the past 10 years (CNN).

And because of this, a lot of people are pointing to America’s seemingly extremely relaxed gun laws. In the case of the shooting in Texas, the culprit, Devin Kelley, used a weapon that is usually considered an automatic rifle. In Texas, there is no ban, much less regulation, on owning an automatic weapon. “It obviously shows that there is a problem when a person can just get a weapon like that,” said sophomore Beth Woods.

Federal law creates the baseline of regulation for guns and their ownership here in the US, but individual states do have their own laws, and some workaround federal law very sneakily.  Texas gun laws do not require you to have a permit to buy a handgun or long gun, you do not have to register firearms with the state, and you do not need to have a gun licence to be a gun owner. According to the NRA-ILA website, this is also the same for Kentucky.

Despite being only five percent of the world’s population, the US has an estimated 35-50 percent of the world’s guns in a study from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey. Former president Barack Obama passed many executive orders during his two terms aimed to lessen gun violence, but president Donald Trump is now working to rollback some of these orders.

Around the world, gun laws look very different when compared to America; however, all countries are different. Two notable countries in relation to gun laws include Canada and Japan.

In Canada, gun laws are defined as strict when compared to the United States. Canada is similar to the US in the sense that the foundation of gun laws are set by the central government, but they can be further manipulated by each individual province.

Federal regulations require a gun owner to be at least 18-years-old, obtain a license, get a background check, and take a public safety course. To obtain a restricted firearm, such as a handgun, you must get a federal registration certificate.

In what some argue different from the US, gun control has recently changed a lot in response to gun violence. In 1989, there was a shooting in a Montreal engineering school that killed 14 people. This, in turn, brought about the 1995 Firearms Act.

Recently, after the Las Vegas shooting, Canada’s officials have faced a lot of questions on their plans for gun control in the future. “It’s a process that is ongoing and we have taken some important steps,” said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale in a press conference on Oct. 3.

In Japan, gun control laws follow a similar rigidness. Gun control advocates today often cite their rules and it’s perceived in turn low homicide rate from guns. The only guns legalized are shotguns, air guns, guns that have research or industrial purposes or guns used for competitions.

Before acquiring a gun, a buyer must go through formal instruction and pass written, mental and drug tests and a rigorous background check.

Currently, there is a lot of talk in the media on gun control. “It’s ridiculous seeing the amount of time the media spends talking about it,” said sophomore Reid Popplewell.

On Nov. 9, democrats in congress announced their new efforts to further gun control. Titled the Assault Weapons Ban of 2017, it would ban the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammo magazines. Previously, this bill was tried in 2013, but failed with a vote of 40 to 60. “To my colleagues in Congress, I say do your job,” said senator Dianne Feinstein in a press release.

Also following after the fatal Texas shooting, members of Congress announced on Nov. 7 that they were working on legislation to prevent anyone convicted of domestic violence from purchasing a firearm.

President Donald Trump, however, is knocking the importance of gun control further down on his list of priorities. After the Texas shooting, he took to the press and denounced the role that guns played in the situation. “[The shooting] was a mental health problem at the highest level.”