Gun control is desperately needed in America. Too many excuses have been made for mass shootings, distracting the public from the only solution. Every time a mass shooting happens, America is set into a loop of reactions that we've practiced over and over again.

1. Immediate Reaction
The media reports on basic facts, including who the shooter may be and who their victims are. Depending on the news source, the article or segment is immediately politicized and used to attack political parties and their members. These are shameful acts because they don't focus on what really matters at that time- the victims of the attack. While the media is guilty of this, so are political figures. After the attack in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton tweeted an insensitive tweet, asking people to "imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer". She then went on to politicize the shooting and blame the NRA for wanting legislation that would create a more devastating death toll.

2. Motive

A day or two after a shooting, people start theorizing motives, blaming mental health or terrorism, again distracting from the fact that the shooter used a gun. On the Monday after the shooting in Texas, Trump spoke about how this "wasn't a guns situation" and suggested that that mental health was to blame. This came less than a day after the shooting, yet Trump decided that he felt confident enough to put the blame on mental health, not the gun. Let's use this "mental health" logic for a second. If a person had no mental health problems, yet wanted to kill people and had a gun, would they be able to kill people with a gun? Yes. The only reason why many people return to mental health as a motive is because of the negative stigma surrounding mental health.

3. The Killer

The media humanizes shooters too much. No. The public does not care about a relative of the shooter saying that he threw tantrums in Pre-K, maybe that's what led to this. It is a waste of air time that could be spent on the victims of the family. It's shameful how much the killer matters to the community instead of the weapon they used. In the end, all this does is show people- hey, this is how popular shooters are. If you do this, you'll have a mark in history. The media should limit the airtime spent on the killer, and more on the weapon.

4. The Vicitms

It's embarrassing that the victims are neglected until the very end. Their faces need to be shown to tell the public: see, this is what happens when there are holes in gun control laws. These are the faces of the lives lost because guns are so easily bought in America. Don't feel bad about it then just walk away- make sure that the next face up there (because without gun control these will just keep happening) isn't someone you know.

America goes through these loops whenever a mass shooting happens, ignoring the fact that the killer used a gun to kill these people. Do something about it. Don't just feel bad whenever another shooting happens. Vote to have stricter gun laws, because without them, America will just be stuck on a loop.