A 26 year old man’s shooting rampage on Oct. 1 that left 10 people dead and seven injured at a community college in Roseburg, Ore. has once again refueled the agonizing chess match that is American gun control. At this point, it’s hard to remember how many times so far this year we’ve had to discuss a mass shooting and it’s aftermath.

Let’s recap, then. So far in 2015, there have been 298 mass shootings in the United States, according to shootingtracker.com. Gun Violence Archive, a not-forprofit gun statistic provider, reports there have been more than 10,000 deaths and more than 20,000 injuries due to gun violence in this year alone.

There is more. In 2013, more preschoolers were shot dead (82) than police officers in the line of duty (27). The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof pointed out in his October 3 column that since 1970, more Americans have died from guns than died in all U.S. wars dating back to the American Revolution combined. There have been 1.45 million gun deaths since 1970 from murder, suicide, and firearm accidents.

In light of the overwhelming figures showing the gun violence problem in America, everyone is looking for a solution to the undeniable problem our country has with firearms. The problem is, there probably isn’t one solid answer to the problem. Democrats look to comprehensive gun control legislation after mass shootings, and the Republican party responds with the tired statement that guns aren’t the problem, the people behind the trigger are.

The apparent insinuation is that there should be a greater emphasis on mental health progress. In a sense, both are right. However, the gun control advocates are more right.

An extensive 2014 study by researchers at the University of Vanderbilt found that “fewer than five percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness.”

Furthermore, the authors of the study state, “We should set our attention and gun policies on the everyday shootings, not on the sensational shootings, because there we will get much more traction in preventing gun crime.”

The pushback from the gun lobby has made comprehensive gun control legislation virtually impossible, though, and we can continue to expect that for the foreseeable future. The National Rifle Association boasts an active membership of five million as of 2013, and it proves to be one of the richest, most powerful lobbying organizations in Washington D.C. time and time again.

Let’s face it: the gun debate in America was over once legislators neglected to change anything after 20 children were fatally shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut almost three years ago. Nothing was changed then, just as it looks like nothing will change now.

The truly unfortunate thing about these toxic lobbying efforts is that they actually undermine the wishes of licensed gun carriers, per a poll taken by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. According to this poll, registered gun owners favored preventative measures such as preventing sales of a firearm to people convicted of domestic violence or assault and requiring background checks that see if a person trying to purchase a firearm has been declared mentally incompetent by a court of law or has been involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric facility.

For the general public, support of gun control is overwhelmingly evident. In the same poll, nongun owners supported banning the sale of military- style automatic weapons by 63 percent and banning the sale of large capacity magazines and clips by 59.9 percent.

There are other measures that are sure to make the Second Amendment advocates uncomfortable, or even angry, but might prove to be necessary to battle America’s problem with gun violence. Some alternative measures include exorbitant tax increases to inflate the price of guns. The Umpqua Community College shooter had 14 guns, of which all were legally obtained. Raising the price of guns through legislation could be a way to keep guns out of circulation.

The gun show loophole, where private dealers can sell firearms without background checks, has to be eliminated, as well. Greater records of owners and sellers should be kept as well to determine who is selling guns that are used in crimes. Conservatives will surely view this as an intrusion into their rights of privacy, but it is a fair price to demand for gun ownership.

American gun crime has long been unacceptable. There is a reason we are the only advanced nation in the world where gun violence is such a massive and widespread problem that it is no longer an anomaly, but the norm. Comprehensive gun control measures are merely the first, necessary step to curb the epidemic of American gun violence.