On December 14, 2012 our hearts broke when we heard the news about a school shooting in a little town called Newtown, Connecticut. 20 children and 6 adults were killed. We could not begin to comprehend the madness that happened that day. So what did we do as society and as people? We vowed to never let this happen again. We began calling for the need for stricter gun control laws specifically a focus on background checks. We demanded the need for mental health awareness and to urge people who were suffering to get help. Here we are on December 14, 2015 exactly three years later. We were willing to do anything and everything in order to ensure that something like that would never break our hearts again. And here we are with our hearts broken again and again.
How do we just become numb to tragedy? Does violence not scare us the way it used to? Do we expect bad things to happen? I hate to say it, but there has been no change since that horrible day we watched unfold. Maybe the change is that our hearts do not break as much as they used to. Maybe it is becoming the new normal for us. Maybe we have just become numb. We do not know what to do or even what to feel anymore because it happens so often.
When it comes to mental health maybe we have taken a personal vow. We might have even decided to be a little bit nicer to one another. By being nicer or kinder we could be helping someone who is struggling. We might be speaking up more when we see someone suffering in hopes of preventing them from doing something that could have been avoided. I understand the reality that the people who commit such heinous crimes are not sane; if they were sane they would not be committing the crime in the first place.
Now the other side of the debate is the guns. The thing that physically does the action. The common argument is eliminating the guns. Make them illegal. Ban them. Unfortunately, we know that if people want to commit crimes they will find a way whether guns are illegal or not. We can turn to our government in hopes of making laws that would help this. Make background checks required and make sure guns do not land themselves in the hands of people who should not have them. We could turn to our government; however, the senate recently blocked a bill from passing that would ban suspected terrorists, felons and the mentally ill from acquiring guns. So now what? Who do we call to help us?
There has been no change and I think we owe it to the victims and the families of the victims to do something about it. We cannot keep turning on the television to see story after story of another mass shooting. We cannot. Here we are three years later and we still remember those feelings. They were fresh filled with anxiety and worry. Here we are 3 years later and those same feelings are hitting the country and communities daily. When do we say enough is enough? I think we have become numb to the violence that is occurring in this country. I think we have become numb for the need for change because it is just part of what is normal now. How many shootings and murders are enough? When do we wake up and say let’s do something?
When is it going to be your home, your school or your community that is shocked by and forever remembered by a mass shooting? Sandy Hook Elementary School changed forever that day and I believe that we owe something to that town and to the victims to never let another community face what they had to face that day.
