Since the start of 2015, there have been 351 mass shootings. There have been more mass shootings than there have been days of the year.
The most recent mass shooting took place in San Bernardino, California on Wednesday, December 2nd. Everyone has their own opinion on what should be done to prevent these shootings, but not enough people are coming together to make a change. Instead, many people spend all of their time ranting on social media, especially Twitter, bashing one another on their thoughts on how to stop the violence.
I am a strong believer in having a place to speak your mind and take a stand: but I am also a strong believer in preventing further arguments. When people take to Twitter to bash on those who only write, “Our thoughts and prayers are with your family,” instead of saying that a change needs to be done, they are not any better than those who are just praying. If someone believes that praying is effective then by all means, continue to pray. I envy you and your strong belief in God. However, I do believe that something more than praying needs to be done. I also believe that people need to stop arguing with one another about the right way to prevent future mass shootings because the only way anything will be prevented is if everyone comes together and actually makes a change happen.
Imagine how much change could be accomplished if everyone stopped fighting and came together with all of their different views to truly make a change. Tweeting that there needs to be stronger gun laws and more restrictions is not going to change anything either. There are currently 552 thousand tweets including #SanBernadino, imagine how much could be getting done if instead of all of this tweeting (and arguing), people were actually going out and making a change.
Tweeting is about expressing your feelings. If you really want to make a change, you need to go out there and make a change happen.
The amount of mass shootings that have occurred in America this year is unacceptable. I think that this horrific shooting that occurred in California needs to be the breaking point. It has to be. It needs to be the shooting that finally starts the change by the people. The government cannot effectively make a change if the citizens of the United States are not ready to make a change with them. This shooting is the deadliest one since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. This shooting is our wake up call as a nation. We need to stop wasting time scrolling through Twitter and finding people with opposite beliefs from ours and telling them they are “going about everything the wrong way.” Instead, we need to find those people with opposite views and say, “let’s come together and between your praying and my desire to step up and make a change, maybe we can really start preventing these mass shootings.”
There are 365 days in a year. As of November 30th there have been 351 mass shootings. As of December 2nd there have been 353 mass shootings. This is an epidemic and it needs to be stopped. It is time for America to put its opinions aside and come together to make a difference. We need to take action together. You can start by making small changes like being nice to strangers and smiling and saying hello when you pass someone on the street. From there, you can make bigger changes, like joining the movement to end gun violence. Finally, you can make huge changes by figuring out exactly what you think needs to be done and start your own prevention group or your own rally to bring those that are against each other together.
