Many Biola students are skeptical about the gun bill bundle set for discussion in the U.S. Senate next month, the first of the country’s major legislative efforts to prevent further gun violence after several mass shootings in the past year. Those who own guns at home and use them for sport or protection are concerned that the measures introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada are not aimed in the correct direction.

“If all of this legislation was passed a month before the shooting in Connecticut, [it] still would have happened," said junior accounting major Tyler Soria. Soria, now 20, has hunted and shot at shooting ranges since he was 15 and began buying guns at age 18.

The factors involved in the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting last December were part of a bigger problem, involving mental health and firearms safety problems within families, Soria said. He explained that since the mother of the Connecticut shooter owned the guns legally, he does not think that anything that they are doing today in these bills would have prevented the shooter from obtaining the weapons.

The bill’s table of contents lists three main acts, which would provide background checks for every firearm sale, stricter federal firearm trafficking laws and grants in order to bolster school security. The grant would provide $40 million a year for 10 years for increased school security, according to a reuters.com article.

However, simply making gun ownership harder or creating stricter rules may not necessarily going to bring about the expected change, adjunct professor of political science Chris Castile wrote in an email. Since current firearm control programs are underfunded and poorly enforced, Castile expressed doubt that creating more programs is the answer. He noted that often bills are responses to pressure on Congress, rather than actual solutions.

“Bills really mean nothing,” Castile wrote. “The Senate, or the House for that matter, can come up with some absolutely ridiculous bills knowing full well that they are not going to pass as currently worded. This is a politically cheap way to earn brownie points with your constituents.”

Some students agree with Castile’s view that more gun control laws will not effectively prevent criminals from obtaining firearms and instead believe the core conversation about gun control should be preserving the Second Amendment.

“The Second Amendment was given to us to protect the people from tyranny, not necessarily the bad guys … it’s really important for freedom and liberty, in this country, to maintain gun rights for people,” said Tyler Hormel, a freshman business major.

One of the biggest concerns regarding the new bill is the provision for a national instant criminal background check system and background checks in all public and private gun sales.

Any bill that passes the Senate must include background checks in order to be effective, Reid told The Washington Post.

Some students are supportive of the bill’s heightened background check requirement.

“I like that there’s a background check … I have no problem taking away guns from people that aren’t in the right mind to have one,” said John Vogel, a junior philosophy major and National Rifle Association member. Vogel has been a gun owner for four years, since age 18, and said that he keeps guns for sport like target and skeet shooting, but also to protect his family.

Hayley Darien, a freshman elementary education major whose family members hunt regularly, agreed that background checks for people purchasing guns made sense, especially concerning mental health.

“There’s a necessity to be careful about these things,” she said.

Others, like Soria, are concerned that the background check system could lead to a federal registry of firearms, which could be abused. As an example, Soria mentioned the controversial list of gun owners’ names and addresses in two New York State counties that was published by The Journal News last December.

Other proposed amendments not currently included in the bill will also be open for discussion along with the bill, according to reuters.com.

Reid plans to ensure the amendments such as the ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazine limits and mental health provisions are voted on, according to The Washington Post.

The bill is scheduled to be discussed first when the Senate returns from their two-week holiday break, according to the Washington Post, which is the same week that Biola students will return to campus after spring break.