The United States of America has a heavy heart today. By this point, I'm sure we've all heard about the tragedy in San Bernardino, and had the time to process it. However, I'm not here to talk about the horrible events in California, or any other specific event. I'm hardly even here to make a well-structured argument. I'm here to vent some frustrations and ask some questions. I'm here to talk about guns.

First, some facts about my relationship with guns. My family does not own any guns. I've only held or shot a gun a few times in my life. To be completely honest, it was exhilarating; however, I do not come from a hunting background, or a family that believes that owning a gun is a necessity for personal security. I'm a pacifist, for Christ's sake. I'll write more about being a pacifist later, but this isn't the time or space. That should tell you enough to suggest where this article is going; I'm not exactly an NRA groupie over here. I'm sure this is a very surprising fact.

By this point, all the facts and figures have circulated enough to render us numb, but they bear repeating. There have been 355 mass shootings this year. On 355 separate occasions, one person has used a firearm to take four or more lives. For those keeping score at home, that is well more than one shooting event a day in 2015. 14 lives were lost in San Bernandino; that brings us to a total of 12,223 deaths and 24,722 injuries in gun-related incidents in 2015.

I do acknowledge that there are a few very limited reasons one would own a low-grade firearm. Hunting, for sport or food, is a time-honored tradition in many parts of the United States. If an individual deems ownership of a firearm necessary for personal security, it's certainly OK for them to own a small weapon, provided they are capable of operating it safely. The beauty of literally every proposed piece of gun-reform legislation, though, is that hunting weapons are not banned in any respect. Although the range of gun control legislation is broad, anything that would be passed only restricts the rights of civilians to keep military-grade firearms in their homes or do silly things with them like take them to Applebee's, which is apparently a thing that people in Texas want to do with their assault weapons that they have for some reason. Whatever form it takes, some form of drastic reining in of American gun culture is necessary. There are 300 million guns in the United States. What the hell, guys? There are only 330 million human beings in the United States.

Nothing I'm saying here is new, by any stretch of the imagination; it's been written hundreds of times for dozens of media outlets. It's almost become cyclical, which is heartbreaking; after every major shooting event, news sources all over print, TV, and the Internet will decry the violence. Politicians will posture about the need for individual liberty, and the importance of depoliticizing this issue. Some media sources will angrily demand comprehensive gun reform, for the umpteenth time, screaming at a brick wall until their lungs go out. And exactly nothing will happen, just like all the other times. How have we let this type of tragedy become a regularity?

We need to talk about guns, but the worst bit is that there is no reason why we should need to. This is the 21st goddamn century. This shouldn't even be a conversation in this day and age. It's not like reform would be difficult to enact or enforce, either--just an elimination of assault weapons, a reduction of magazines, a registration and insurance system similar to the automotive one, and some goddamn common sense and empathy would be a start. This shouldn't be political; it should be obvious that civilians have no need to access military-grade firepower, because nobody needs assault weapons to defend their homes or hunt deer. This should be the biggest no-brainer in legislative history, and the fact that the lives of countless victims are thrown away as collateral in this game of political-ideological chicken is disgusting. Congress' failure to move on this issue tells us, in no uncertain terms, that their "individual liberties" and, more importantly, their elected offices, are more important than tens of thousands of innocent victims.

Every time news of a major shooting rocks the United States, an Onion headline pops up in my news feed. It reads, "'No Way To Prevent This', Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens." I'm writing this to say I'm sick and tired of reading that headline. I'm tired of hearing about how liberty to own weapons is greater than some people's liberty to avoid death at their expense. I'm tired of hearing another somber news report given by shellshocked anchors with body counts too high to fully comprehend. I'm tired of hearing about how Sandy Hook or Denver or San Bernardino or Tuscon or Aurora or Virginia Tech or Columbine need our thoughts and prayers. Thoughts and prayers haven't brought anybody back to life. Wayne LaPierre can shove his thoughts and prayers up his ass. I'm tired of praying over dead bodies; it's about time we turned that energy into something tangible.