Every morning as you turn the news on while you get ready for your long day of work or school ahead of you, you hear a new tragic story. A young adult being murdered in cold blood, a mass shooting killing and injuring many or other tragic events that affect all of America—but most importantly the youth. The youth of America is the next generation, our generation. The generation that has grown up watching school shootings, mass murders and other instances involving gun violence unfold right in front of our eyes. It does not matter where you live. Violence happens everywhere. And if we try, we can put a stop to it.
Since December 14, 2012, when the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 28 innocent lives occurred, there have been 87 other school shootings, amounting to 58 deaths. The youth of America is on the front line for school shootings. Every single day, students walk into their schools and do not expect for anything out of the ordinary to happen. Every single day, though, there is the slight chance that there could be an armed person in their schools that innocent students should feel safe at. School is a place to learn and grow, not a place that should be feared. But can we feel safe at school? Yes. We have the ability to change the pattern of school shootings. Through hiring more security, installing metal detectors, or instead, not resulting to gun violence in general! If only it was that simple. The fact of the matter is, even if we teach our youth, our generation, that gun violence or violence, in general, is never the answer, some may and will still resort to it.
Almost every day, I get a notification text from the local news about another young life taken due to gun violence, but only from the local news. I can’t even imagine all of the notifications that would be sent to my phone if I was on the text list for every city in America. I regret saying that getting those notifications has gotten old, and I only briefly read the article that is attached to the message. I think of the victim’s family, friends and everyone affected. I’m not saying the only people affected by gun violence are the youth of America, but we are the ones who can try to put a stop to it. We are slowly but surely getting used to hearing of gun violence. We no longer go out of our way to put a stop to the violence, or even try to. Nowadays, even when a mass shooting occurs, we pay attention to the news and grieve over them for only a few days, if that. The only stipulation is if we know someone who was affected by the gun violence. When we know someone personally who was injured or murdered, we start to care, but then it is too late.
It may be too late for the past 87 school shootings since 2012, and hundreds of other murders and injuries caused by gun violence in the past few years, but it is the perfect time to put a stop to the instances that could possibly occur in the future. After doing some research, I was hoping to think of some solution to this issue, but unfortunately, I don’t have anything. We could easily increase the mental health awareness programs that some gunmen suffer from, or we could ban guns in general, but would that actually help the problem? It could put a pause on it for a little while, but I think the best solution to put a stop to the gun violence is to start caring before it is too late. Not just care about the victims you hear about every day on the news but also for their families and friends. We all must stop seeing the victims of gun violence as another death or injury, but as another statistic that is rapidly rising. Until we start caring, nothing will change for the better—it will only get worse. By shining a light on the issue and starting to care about the victims and their families, maybe a meaningful change could occur.
