Obama does not want to take away your guns.

The president gave a speech that was a long-time coming recently about his new proposals for gun control in America. The way we treat our guns has become an epidemic, and we’re treating it like a 5th grade teacher dances around Columbus discovering the new world. We’re responding to mass killing after mass killing with excuses like, “violent people are violent people” and “it would have happened without a gun anyway”. Somehow, we’re getting away with telling the mothers of children killed with rifles that they could have been just as easily stabbed to death – and when she questions our logic we’re telling her to shut her mouth. Why? “Because the second amendment, that’s why.”

I think self-protection is important, too. In a couple months, I’ll be eighteen, I’ll be moved out of my mother’s apartment and I’ll be living on my own with my girlfriend. And I’ll also own a gun, because I’ll want to protect my home from potential threats just like the next guy (or girl).

But – and this is the important part – I’ll also be more than willing to receive a background check and thorough training on gun safety. Why wouldn’t I? I have nothing that would incriminate me on a background check, and if I’m going to own a weapon that could take someone’s life I want to be as sure as I can be that when it comes time, I’m going to do so on purpose.

But Marco Rubio doesn’t see eye to eye with me. Neither does Donald Trump, but that’s no surprise – he wants background checks, but only for people who look like they might be Muslim; if they can pass a pop quiz on the New Testament they’ll be given a machine gun and a pat on the back. Kidding. But doesn’t that kinda sound like it could have been on CNN last night?

Trump is a different matter, but Rubio certainly isn’t, and neither are the many republicans (and very few democrats) running for office and even those who already hold positions of power in our government. Rubio specifically has already been outspoken and critical about Obama’s proposals. Stating once again, in a scholarly summary in his latest campaign ad that Obama “wants to take our guns”.

Yes, the president’s proposal’s main goal is indeed to come to each door in America and seize control of your guns. Yes, YOUR guns. You read that right. Lock them up and hide them under your beds, cause Mr. President is on his way as we speak. Also, grab your autograph book, that’s going to be pretty cool for you. Except for the gun-losing part, but at least you get to meet a celebrity. Like Zac Efron showing up at your door and kidnapping your firstborn. Sucks, but still pretty cool.

Obama’s proposal can be broken down into these parts.

• Keep guns out of harmful hands using background checks.
• Better mental health treatment (by proposing new $500 million investment in providing mental health care to Americans).
• Improve upon gun safety technology by directing the Department of Defense to sponsor new technological advances in gun safety. The President was quoted as, “If we can set it up so you can’t unlock your phone unless you’ve got the right fingerprint, why can’t we do the same thing for our guns?”

Wait, I thought Rubio said he was coming for our arms? I could have sworn while I was waiting for that ad to be over so I could watch the end of Modern Family on Hulu he said I should be worried about this proposal. But now, that seems like misinformation.

Maybe, just maybe, the President isn’t the gun-hating peace-loving naive hippie that some republican candidates have made him out to be. Maybe he’s a human being who is disgusted with the mass shootings and the senseless killings that could have been prevented with stricter guidelines. Maybe he’s a father who can imagine his daughters being in a school that’s shot up by a kid with a mental disorder that was never properly diagnosed. Maybe he’s a little more human than the rest of us, and maybe he’s using that to guide his decision making.

I think we could all benefit from a little humanity. No one’s trying to deprive you of your second amendment rights, instead, they’re attempting to protect the nation from a third of their unalienable rights given to us by the same document – the right to life. And maybe with this new proposal, one more human being in this country will not have that right stripped from them by an unstable adult with a criminal record who got his hands on a gun because the laws just weren’t strict enough. So tote your legally obtained rifle, but don’t forget to send out your personal equivalent of a prayer to those who lost their loved ones this year for your ability to buy it so easily.