Yet another mass shooting has occurred on American soil. This one was in Colorado Springs, Colorado outside a Planned Parenthood at a shopping center. Two civilians and a police officer were killed in a five-hour shootout before the shooter surrendered himself. As of Oct. 1, after the shooting at the Oregon community college, there had been 294 shootings in 2015, only 274 days into the year. That does not count all the shootings in October and November.
People seem to be confused as to why all these shootings occur so often in the United States. The gunman at the shooting in Colorado Springs used an AK-47 like weapon. This is an automatic or semi-automatic military style weapon that civilians are allowed to have in their homes under current laws. Perhaps more regulation on automatic and semi-automatic weapons would lessen the number of shootings would decrease. Now, this does not mean that I am saying we ban all firearms, because many people are perfectly able to use a rifle or pistol and are properly registered as gun owners. Unfortunately, there are far too many opportunities for people who are mentally ill or simply angry with thy system that can get their hands on dangerous military grade weapons.
Bernie Sanders, in the first Democratic Debate, said that the best way to fix the gun control problem in America is to first look at the way we treat mental illness. Gun control is a hot debate in the political sphere right now. Candidates from both parties are taking stances on either side of the debate. There are those who invoke the second amendment and forget that we live in a world where rifles are no longer the only form of fire arm. Should all Americans be allowed to own military grade weapons? Does that make us safer? Or does it just give more opportunity to people who wish to harm others to carry out that harm?
Being from Connecticut, I know how much gun violence can tear up communities and hurt families. The whole world known about our little state in New England because of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. The whole word knows that there was a shooting there that killed 26 people including 20 children. That is an entire classroom of children gone. I watched the aftermath on the news, I heard about 20 funerals put on by parents. I followed the investigation on the news. I know that an entire school had to be shut down because who can ask children to go back to a school where they experienced real horror and terror? Who can ask children to relive that every day? And people say that Connecticut’s gun laws are too strict. It is easy to think that these things can never affect you, until it happens in your backyard.
This latest shooting will likely fall into the background noise of the holiday and the growing desensitization for these mass shootings. People will forget or ignore the facts and fight new gun regulations that can help make America safer.
The government needs to respect the second amendment, however, perhaps Americans can survive without military grade weapons.
