In light of recent events in Orlando, from the mass shooting at Pulse to the random killing of Christina Grimmie, my heart hurts and goes out to the residents of Orlando and all the pain they are being putting through. It saddens me to think that children someday, will have to sit through history class and learn about all the mass shootings. In just the past twelve years, time that I can vividly remember, there has been multiple mass shootings: the Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Colorado movie theatre, San Bernardino and countless others. While the mass shootings always come as a shock, one can’t forget the daily shootings that happen around the United States. Being from a suburb near Chicago, I can barely go on Facebook, turn on the news or look at a newspaper without a headline announcing another person injured or killed. Often times innocent people and children are hurt by the crossfire of gangs.
Numerous questions have been going through my head, mainly why could such a thing even happen? Are we, as a society partially to blame for allowing these events to happen? And most importantly what can we do to prevent these tragic events from continuing to happen? When as a society are we going to put an end to senseless violence?
Obviously none of these questions are easily answered, if they were, I would have no need to be writing this article. There will be no quick solution, nor will there be a solution that pleases all. But even as a society who has been divided on gun control for many years, we can all agree that none of us want this kind of violence to continue. To me the commonsense place to start addressing the violence problem in our country is to enact some kind of restrictions on buying guns. In my opinion, an AR-15, a weapon that was specifically made for combat use by extensively trained military personnel, does not need to be used by civilians. However, while this is my personal opinion, it is not the most immediate issue that needs to be addressed. The issue that needs to be addressed is creating a background check that eliminates suspected terrorists, mentally unstable, and those placed on the no fly list from being able to purchase firearms.
But gun control is not the only thing that the nation needs to work on. We as a society need to work on being more loving and accepting of those who may differ from us. While the outpour has been incredible in response to the Orlando shooting, there have been some people who have used it as an opportunity to attack the LGBTQ community. Which I find absolutely appalling. Part of the Americas greatness is that we are such a diverse country, we open our doors to people across the world and give people the freedom of how they want to live their lives. Just because someone lives their life differently from you, doesn’t give you the right to judge. At the end of the day we are all human and as humans we should love one another. Love the things that make us different, it’s part of what makes the human race so amazing. You may not understand a person’s choices or way of life, but accept that they are still a human being capable of so much love and good. Hate and violence is never ever the answer to a problem.
Maybe The Beatles were onto something when they sang "All You Need Is Love."
