I heard about the UCC shooting from my Twitter feed. The sad thing was it didn’t shock me, or at least it didn’t shock me like, “a man walked onto a college campus murdered nine people and then killed himself” should. Instead, I clicked, skimmed, exited, and kept scrolling. Why didn’t it shock me? Why did I, a college student living on a college campus, keep scrolling? Because it’s not a new story. Sure, it was in Oregon not Virginia. Yes, it was a community college not a university. But let’s face it, the basic premise was the same. Someone walked onto a campus and people died. It happened at Columbine High School in 1999 It happened at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. And it happened numerous times across the country every year in between.
With 50 “major” school shootings since Columbine, I’m wondering how shootings are still nothing out of the ordinary. I’m wondering why the only people truly shocked by a school shooting are the towns where the shootings took place. I’m wondering why the first procedure I see on the “In Case of Emergency” poster in my dorm is “active shooter.” What happened to fires, tornadoes, and earthquakes?
After 16 years of mass shootings, why are we still talking about gun control? Shouldn’t something have been done, yesterday, last year, a decade ago?
No, I don’t know all the statistics. No, I haven’t done extensive research on the subject. But neither has the majority of America. I’m speaking not as an expert, but as an average citizen of the U.S.
The greatest argument against gun control is the second amendment: the right to bear arms. The greatest supporter of this argument is the NRA. On their website, they’ve kindly listed every state law that gives citizens the right to own guns. And it’s no surprise there are fifty of them. Fifty laws for fifty states, all in accordance with the Constitution.
But I’m not arguing that we shouldn’t have the right to own guns. Own a gun; own fifty guns– it’s your prerogative. All I ask is that you’ve undergone some sort of background check and licensing before I give you the ability to kill.
In a country still plagued by segregation and civil rights, it is strange that the ability to buy a gun is the only thing with no discrimination. Man, woman, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, transgender – as long as you are a human being, in most cases who is at least 18, you can buy a gun. You can buy a handgun, a shotgun, or an automatic gun.
Now, this has all been said before. In fact, it’s been said hundreds of times before. Yet, nothing has happened to significantly impact gun-control. We talk all about it, argue about it, hold political debates about it, yet the flag still stands at half-mast.
Will implementing gun-control bring gun violence to a complete halt? No! Just like making heroin illegal doesn’t eliminate heroin addicts. But at least by implementing some protocols we aren’t making the ability to legally purchase a gun and use it for mass destruction easier than obtaining a driver’s license.
So how many more shootings do we need to live through? How many lives does it take for the leaders we elected to speak up and use their voice? Hundreds of citizens have already taken the initiative. Now it’s time for the people on the hill to take a little risk.
