Everyone by now should be well aware of how tragic not only events on June 12, 2016 were, but how distressing too many similar events throughout this whole year have been. What is usually a rare occurrence for other countries, is currently a typical incidence in ours. By now, we’ve practically become used to waking up and seeing news about mass shootings. And to top it off, our country is dealing with these catastrophes horribly. While people post on social media to show their support, it sadly does not move us forward in any way towards solving this horrible and recurring issue. Meanwhile, Congress still won’t act on gun control, and people’s views on guns are barely altered.
According to a Pew Research Center study, people’s views on gun control generally remain unchanged, even after shootings such as the 2012 shooting in Aurora, Colorado, or the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. Years later, we face many more similar events, all while becoming more used to one of the worst possible scenarios to happen in a country--and with little effort being done to end them.
On top of the ineffective support, it has become more clear how ignorant some of those among us are. Too many people immediately blamed Muslims for the Orlando shootings, despite the attacker actually being an American citizen, and how many other Americans have been responsible for previous mass shootings.
It’s a horrible realization: America the beautiful has become America the deadly. How long are these depressing news stories going to continue before people finally realize that guns are a problem, not the solution? I’ve never understood our country's obsession with guns, and neither has the rest of the world, given that Australian comedians are poking fun at how out of whack our obsession with guns is. And what I don’t understand even more is how the fascination got so out of control, without true acts of solving the problem. Americans have a mindset of “there’s no way to prevent this,” when all other countries have prevented events like this from always having better laws. Canada is one of these, where a license is required in order to own a firearm. Because of their regulations on guns, Canada has had massive declines over the years in crime incidents, according to a report on their crime rates.
The ridiculous part about all of this, is that the solution is very simple: impose new gun laws. But what could be an easy fix, has been made problematic because of many strong opinions on guns in our country. Enforcing stricter regulations on guns is our only option to being a non-deadly country, but the gun-obsessed Americans that don't like the idea of stricter control on owning them are holding our country back from getting back to a more peaceful society. It's unbelievable that people are so inconvenienced over something we can all live without; is being able able to own guns really worth so many innocent lives? Guns should be a privilege, a huge responsibility, and used for only legitimate reasons, yet people view them as an accessory; a common object whose way-too-high of a value, causes those to disregard the dangers of it. The high value of owning a weapon should not be superseding the cons, and while that may not be the case for many responsible gun owners in America--we just can't risk any more dangers to our citizens.
We may be more divided than ever as a country, but now we need to come together as a country and fight the recurring tragedies, with both parties intervening. Instead of making memes, posting hashtags, and sending thoughts and prayers; we need to actually take action. Giving blood, donating to the victim's families, and taking a stance against the ineffective gun laws we have now, is what we should be doing. Finally, the NRA needs to be stood up to more than ever, by not only politicians, but also us.
The constitution may not be able to be re-written, but it needs to be adjusted in some way or another. Our gun laws need to be the focal point, and should have been changed a long time ago. Dangerous people should not be able to easily get ahold of something designed to kill things. There is no reason a society needs assault and automatic weapons to be peaceful.
It's unfortunately not as easy of a path as it could be, but if Congress doesn't act on such awful and harmful instances like the mass shootings this year, what other future situations are going to continuously occur without intervention?
This is supposed to be a free country, but I certainly don't feel free to go to any public event I want from this point on. Most of us over what should have been a peaceful summer, will walk into public areas, once deemed as safe, with an abnormal degree of feeling unsafe.
The future beholds many opportunities, but it’s a nightmare that we have to live in a country where there is so much potential danger. Our country can’t afford to keep losing innocent lives, or have the belief that nothing can be done. The last thing everyone needs is a society that is used to mass shootings, while the rest of the world resides in more peaceful environments that rise far above our system from having more sensible laws. Wake up America, because we don't have time for the worst possible events to become our countries norm.
