There have been 133 mass shootings in the United States since 2016 began. That's something the news doesn't tell you. Until you actually search for it and add it up yourself, it's a detail you would never know. It's pretty crazy, huh? That something like this could be happening in our very own country, yet we know nothing of it. We're too busy living in our own little world, sucked into our cell phones and our game systems and our television sets ... but we don't even know what's going on in the world around us.
How many views are on that Vine of the red panda screaming when someone walks up? 20,688 views as of June 12, 2016. What about music videos or movie trailers? Hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. How many of us actually care about our society? How many of us actually pay attention to what's going on in the world aside from ourselves? We are so focused on what we are doing and what our friends are doing that we don't stop to think about what's going on outside of our little bubble.
133 mass shootings. One of which occurred on June 12th in Orlando, Florida. At a gay nightclub in Orlando, in fact. 50 people lost their lives and 53 more were wounded, making this the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Was this a hate crime against the LBGT community? Or was it an attack from ISIS? Or was it both? According to CNN, the shooter pledged allegiance to ISIS, but that doesn't rule out the fact that the shooting could also have been a hate crime. The silver lining in this event is that the shooter is dead. He can't hurt anyone else.
133 mass shootings that have occurred within our borders since the year started. And we look more outside our country at the rest of the world. Are we too afraid to look within? Do we feel that knowing what's going on within our borders will make us too afraid to leave our houses and to walk freely? Will it make us feel unsafe in our own hometowns? Too afraid to go to the grocery store after dark? Too afraid to go see a movie? Too afraid of our own shadows that we don't want to leave the house for fear of what might happen?
It's time to stand up. It's time to ask questions. It's time to become socially aware of what's happening in our world instead of being sucked into our distractions. It's time to start living instead of merely existing.
