When I was a sophomore in high school, a school shooting shocked the nation at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. I remember hoping that a travesty such as that one would never happen again. But guess what? My hopes were shattered when another school shooting happened a few weeks after Sandy Hook. Since then, I have been passionately campaigning for gun control. Flash forward to 2018, and that will not change.
Tonight, the parents of seventeen young teenagers are left childless. They thought that they were sending their children off for the day, and that they'd be home that afternoon. Some, though, never saw their children again. Instead of seeing their kids get their diplomas, some will have to say goodbye forever. Caskets should not have to be that small. It is an incredibly heartbreaking thought, isn't it?
Well, that heartbreaking thought wasn't enough for Congress to do anything about the loss of these children.
Gun control needs to happen. No longer is it a question of whether but when. One of the misconceptions surrounding gun control is that it takes away guns. No, it adds stricter laws surrounding guns so that events like the one in Florida and Sandy Hook don't happen again. I so desperately hope for a new era in the fight for gun control come the midterm elections in November.
Life can't just "go on" after these types of shootings. Families are ripped apart by grief and unable to truly feel whole again. I hate that there is never enough attention put on the families these victims leave behind. They are just as much victims as the actual victims of the shooting. The only difference is that one gets to rest. The other has to figure out a way to move on after losing such an integral part of their family unit.
I used to hate the way that the media covered shootings. News companies never seemed to place nearly enough emphasis on the lives lost, but on the shooter. And that is total bull. Kids should not have to worry about their grave stones. Kids should be able to play and run as freely as possible. Their whole loves should not be defined by the dash separating the years on their grave stones. It's just not fair.
So where would the babies that we lost at Sandy Hook be today? Most of them would be entering the sixth or seventh grade come the fall. They would be starting to discover their talents and passions, and starting to make their impact on the world. I thought that the lives lost on that fateful December day would be enough to inspire Congress to do something. And yet, nothing has happened. Until something does happen, I will continue to fight for restrictions on guns. One person's victim could be another person's child. I am tired of seeing families ripped apart because of gun violence.
It's time for lives to stop being lost and Congress to actually do something about it.