As I write this, it's Valentine's Day.
A day full of love, a celebration. A chance to appreciate the people who bring you love every day of your life. A chance to love those people just a little extra.
So when I opened Twitter this evening to catch up on what's been going on in the world today, my heart sunk to learn of the shooting at the Florida high school. Yes, my heart sinks every time innocent lives are robbed from this world, but on a day full of such love, it just proves how all of this makes no sense.
Why are we still enduring this?
A month and a half into 2018. 7 weeks into the year. This is the 30th mass shooting. If this number isn't scaring you, if you're saying "Well it's not THAT bad," you are the prime example of how desensitized we are to this. You are the prime example of the problem this country is facing.
You're right. People kill people. A gun sitting on a table doesn't kill a person, someone has to wield it with intent to do harm for some to be harmed. But if that gun wasn't there, the ease and the quick decision making that comes with a shooting gets interrupted. The person needs to think a little harder about what they're doing, wait a little longer to figure something out. And in that time that slows them down, so slows the urge to do something, the rash decisions fueled by emotions.
That's correct, we have a 2nd Amendment that protects the citizens of this country to have the right to bear arms. But think for a second of the world where that amendment was created. A new country that just escaped the grasp of an overpowering government, desperately trying to set up a new place where the same mistakes don't happen twice.
Desperately trying to make sure the people can protect themselves from the possibility of being unfairly ruled all over again. We don't really have that problem anymore. We don't live our lives in fear day to day that suddenly the government will seize control of our lives while we are left defenseless. People do, however, live their lives in fear day to day that they may lose their life because of someone else's bad decision.
Other countries have already been through this. They have a mass shooting, they increase gun regulations, suddenly they don't have mass shootings. America is indeed the land of the free, but if you have the capability of harming another, it's the country's job to protect them too. It isn't infringing on your right. It's protecting lives. We have freedom here. That freedom doesn't extend to enabling danger.
I'm not saying that the people who own guns are putting this country in danger. I'm saying that because guns are so easily accessible to people who shouldn't be owning guns, people are dying. Because a parent owns a gun, the kid now has access.
Even if it's protected, locked up. You know kids have their ways of finding and getting their hands on things. Because it's so easy for guns to get into the wrong hands, we should be more careful about who constitutes as having the right hands. One person can ruin it for every person who isn't acting out. And that's life,
I hope for a world where people don't have the ability to walk into schools and murder innocent kids who are just trying to live their lives and learn. I hope for a world where I don't turn on the news and see more people have died, making THIS year the worst year for shootings and THIS shooting the worst one to date. It's not okay. It's not. No one should have to die at the hands of another. And we're sitting back and letting it happen.
Wake up.
