On Sunday, November 5th, 2017 there was another mass shooting in America. This one took place at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. 26 people were killed and 20 were wounded. It may be hard to comprehend that this just happened considering it has only been 35 days since the last mass shooting in America. 35 days since the shooting in Las Vegas. With the increasing frequency of events, many people are trying to understand. Why does this keep happening? To begin to do this, we can’t just jump into it; we have to take a look at the facts first.

1. A mass shooting is typically defined by four or more people being shot at one time with no cooling off period, however, that definition is not set in stone because there are several variations of it out there.
2. In February of 2017, a bill was signed that makes it easier for the mentally ill to buy guns.
3. The Sandy Hook school shooting happened in 2012 and since then there has been over 1,500 mass shootings.
4. In the year 2015 over the course of 336 days, there were 355 mass shootings.
5. So far in 2017 there have been over 300 mass shootings in America.
6. Observations and studies have shown that the majority of mass shooters are white males. From the year 1982 to 2015 64% of the shooters fit this type.
7. There are significant connections between domestic violence/disputes and mass shootings.
8. Many of the firearms used are obtained legally.
9. Even though many people believe that all mass shooters have a mental problem, this is not true. Some of them do, yes, but it’s not all of them by far.

Those are some of the biggest facts about mass shootings in general, but what about the Texas church shooter?

1. The shooter was a 26-year-old white male
2. He had military experience
3. He did obtain his weapon legally, however, he wasn’t supposed to be able to
4. He assaulted his wife and stepson several times
5. The man had received an animal cruelty citation for allegedly beating a dog

In many instances, the warning signs are there. We just have to know what to look for. If we can recognize the signs and keep guns out of the wrong hands then hopefully we can prevent more mass shootings. In my lifetime alone there have been way too many to count and quite a few that had been called “the deadliest shooting in American history” at the time. Here are just a few of the top ones:

1. Columbine. April 20th,1999. 12 killed.
2. Virginia Tech. April 16th, 2007. 32 killed, 17 injured.
3. Colorado Dark Knight Rises. July 20, 2012. 12 killed, 58 injured.
4. Sandy Hook. December 14th, 2012. 26 killed, 20 of them were 1st graders.
5. Pulse Night Club. June 12th, 2016. 49 killed, 58 injured.
6. Las Vegas. October 1st, 2017. 58 killed, 515 injured.
7. November 5th, 2017. Texas church shooting. 26 killed, 20 injured.

Isn’t that too many? It would be too many if those were the only ones that happened, but they’re not. Everyone always says it’s “too soon” to talk about it. That was said about almost every single one of the shootings listed above. But how many people really start talking about it after a couple months have passed? The fact of the matter is, it’s never too soon to start talking about it to try to prevent another tragedy.

Everyone always says it’s “too soon” to talk about it. That was said about almost every single one of the shootings listed above.

My professor brought up the subject after the Las Vegas shooting and she started talking about the silence that evolves after a shooting like this. She then talked about the noise from the actual gun itself and the chaos of the event. It’s the noise of a tragedy. And what are we going to do to stop it? If mental health is the problem, why don’t we have a solution? In reality, the problem is not only mental health. There are numbers of them, some big, some small. 35 days is not even enough time to start healing from the last mass shooting and then another one happens. It’s time to pull up our bootstraps and figure out a solution, America.