Two-hundred-seventy-310 million guns for 320 million people. The U.S. has one of the highest amount of guns per capita in the world, which is exactly why gun control won’t work. Not only will the policies enacted not prevent people with the desire to kill, but it will also impede on our basic liberty—the right to bear arms.

So many of the policies the government has enacted today repair problems at the surface, merely putting a metaphorical Band-Aid on it to cover up the problem temporarily. While I understand that it is unrealistic to expect politicians to dive deeper into the core of every problem they face, we need to start looking at long term solutions to gun control rather than creating a larger gap between the rights we currently have and the rights we ought to have. Providing excess gun regulations will do exactly that— make it look like the problem of gun violence is being solved, when in fact passing legislation is not going to stop what’s happening.

Take Chicago, for example. This city has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, yet it is being deemed “Chiraq.” While the number of people who die from gun related violence is decreasing, the number of gun shot victims is increasing, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation reports from 2015. More inexperienced people are getting a hold of guns and using them, so although the murder rate is dropping, which is most likely due to the fact that concealed gun carry was approved, shots are still ringing throughout the Chicagoland area..

“327 more people were shot in 2014 than the year before, an increase of 12 percent,” America’s 2014 Murder Capital, The Daily Beast, said.

What an over exuberant amount of gun laws do is force gun holders to become more creative, and create a false sense of security from the civilians, resulting in further tragedies. Gun violence is not going to stop anytime soon, with or without gun control laws. An easy answer to the problem is to slap harsh penalties to those who break these laws, but former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy contends that gang members face worse repercussions from their gangs for losing a gun than they do by the courts for illegally possessing one, according to DNAinfo.

What we need to work towards improving is the police system itself. And let me be clear when I say that I know the police force is doing everything they can to stop this, and they aren’t the ones to blame for these killings, the killers are. We need to start restructuring our methods. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, there have been 2,477 people arrested on gun charges, Anthony Guglielmi, the Department spokesman said. Of those, more than 600 had been arrested before on weapons charges according to DNAinfo.

Giving up our rights over something that may not even fix the problem is a huge mistake that may prove detrimental. We must start holding these perpetrators responsible before we create laws that may hurt the average citizen. An overwhelming amount of hysteria in times like these is common. Because there is a prevalent fear of the unknown and of possible threats to one’s livelihood, however, we must keep a cool, level head. Passing law after law will not stop the problem, it will exacerbate it.