I haven’t felt less human than I do right now.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, a shooter by the name of Chris Harper-Mercer barged through the doors of Oregon Community-College and proceeded to shoot up the building. At 10:38 AM, he began his reign of terror that soon took the lives of 9 people, injured 9 more, and traumatized the lives of so many more. This tragedy ends when Harper-Mercer is killed in a shoot-out with the police. The country is now sending out their prayers to the families, students, and faculties who have been affected by this violent act of GUN VIOLENCE.
Let me just repeat that for those who can’t read clearly: I said gun violence.
There will be mindless flocks of supporters who will pop up and fight me for the fact that I dare accuse this tragedy in the name of guns. They’ll scream from the heavens that it is their constitutional right and it’s not the gun that’s the problem, it’s the people. They’ll scream and kick and wail and cry that someone dare try to take away their precious guns from them, all while a mother, a father, a fiancé, a child is grieving the loss of someone they held close to them.
Here’s the cold hard truth about all of this: this is the result of loose gun laws. This has been the 45th mass shooting this year alone and the word “shooting” concludes that the gun was the cause of all this trauma. Having such a powerful weapon in your hands is a lot of pressure and a lot of power, too much power for a normal citizen to handle. National security and police officers need guns to command authority and order (and God knows we have already had problems with them this year). Having any old John Doe off the street with a handgun is not safe. If we really want to protect our loved ones, we need to get rid of the things that are killing them.
“But it’s not the gun, it’s the person who is evil.” And what have we done about that? I’ll tell you what: JACK SHIT! Every time something like this comes up, we come up with some bullshit excuse about how they’re insane or didn’t know better. We pity these monsters, making them seem like poor unfortunate souls, forgetting that they were the cause of terror. What’s worse is that some of these offenders die before justice is served. Who is going to pay for all the grief these people are feeling? Harper-Mercer is dead. We have no policy or laws to keep these so-called “insane” people in check, so something has got to give. It’s either we do something about those people or take away those weapons. And, I’m telling you right now, the mentally ill are not the problem.
I can’t pray anymore for these people. We have become so numb to this that we’d rather fight to keep our right instead of fight for the lives that were taken. Lives were taken and terrible things happen, so why are we acting like it's just another news story? How many more people, students, children have to die before we do something?!
I am done feeling sorry, the only thing I want to feel is justice.
