In Anne Michaud’s article “When Must a Person Be ‘Put Away’ for Safety’s Sake?” (2013), she argues that America’s focus should not be solely on gun control and making certain guns illegal, but that background checks of the purchaser’s mental stability should be provided to ensure that they are not mentally ill and can be trusted with a gun. A few weeks after the school shooting in Newton, Obama stated that he agrees with the idea of banning assault rifles. Michaud believes that instead, we should be checking mental health before allowing gun access to citizens. According to statistics, 1/3 of homeless people and 20% of prisoners are said to be mentally ill, yet they are not receiving the treatment that is necessary in order for them to live normally. These people that are lacking help are the ones who end up causing tragedies such as Sandy Hook Elementary. Another way to prevent such tragedies is to have stronger laws in states. Stricter states have proven to have 1/3 less murders than states with looser rules. Also, Michaud believes that families should be able to recognize their family members odd and questionable behavior. They should take precautionary actions if someone in their family’s behavior is way out of the ordinary so that they can attempt to prevent these devastating tragedies from happening. The author uses several statistics in order to prove that it is not the guns that are causing these mass murders, but it is the people behind the guns that are causing these disasters where dozens of innocent people are killed. The gunmen and their mental states are the real problem and should be tested before being handed a weapon. Michaud believes that background checks will be more effective than gun control laws because even though the gun laws will exist, they are very hard to enforce and can easily be worked around. Michaud’s target audience was to the government, the citizens of America, and families all across the nation, desperate to get everyone’s attention to help make a change. Her tone is stern so that her audience can tell she is very serious about the subject.

Michaud’s purpose of this article was to express her opinions to the nation about what she thinks should be done in order to help prevent mass