When will Americans prioritize gun control?
As of Nov. 10, there have been 307 mass shootings in 2018. To put that into perspective, it is the 314th day of the year. So, essentially, nearly each day of the year could have a corresponding mass shooting. The most recent of these tragic events occurred late Wednesday night, when a 28-year-old Caucasian man entered a local line-dancing bar in Thousand Oaks, California, and murdered 12 people with a Glock .45 Caliber handgun. This shooting comes two and a half weeks after the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, in which 11 worshippers were murdered by a 54-year-old Caucasian male using an AR-15 assault rifle.
Mass shootings have become so common in this country that you’re now more likely to die in a mass shooting than a natural disaster. Yes, seriously. Did you know that you have a 1 in 60,000 chance of dying in a tornado? A 1 in 130,000 chance of dying in an earthquake? A 1 in 161,831 chance of dying from being struck by lightning? A 1 in 66,324 chance of dying in a cataclysmic storm? Meanwhile, you have a 1 in 11,125 chance of dying in a mass shooting. We all know what to do or have been forewarned about things like earthquakes, tornadoes, lightning and storms. We know where to go, how to act, how to be prepared. There are emergency warnings that are broadcast nationwide on television and our phones, endless reporting and even actual weather channels describing events, and not to mention countless films about natural disasters – it’s something everyone talks about. They’re something that everyone is warned about and everyone expects. But you’re more likely to die in a mass shooting.
Gun control, for some reason, still remains a controversial topic in the United States. What people refuse to acknowledge is that it’s become an epidemic. Because people can’t feel safe going to concerts (Las Vegas), can’t feel safe going to movies (Denver), can’t feel safe going to work (YouTube, California, Capital Gazette, etc.), can’t feel safe going to schools (Parkland, Virginia Tech, Columbine, etc.), can’t feel safe going to bars (Pulse, Thousand Oaks) and can’t even feel safe going to religious services (Pittsburgh, Sutherland Springs). Yes, I understand people argue that the Second Amendment, which states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” is untouchable and indispensable, but last time I checked, the country that boasts the largest army in the world no longer has any need to form a “well regulated militia.” As well as this – have we forgotten what “amend” even means? Change.
Our reality is that we face a new mass shooting almost every single day of the calendar year. This is our new norm. Great Britain had a school shooting in 1996. After that, they outlawed handguns. There hasn’t been a school shooting there in 20 years. That’s longer than I’ve been alive. That’s longer than any high school student has been alive. Mass shootings have become so commonplace in our society that they barely last a full 24-hour news cycle. People see it, they report it, they send thoughts and prayers and then it’s on to the next. That’s not normal! One of the people murdered at the Thousand Oaks Shooting was someone who had survived last year’s Las Vegas Massacre. His name is Brendan Kelly. He survived one tragedy just to die in another.
These tragedies keep occurring day after day and nothing's happening. Nothing is happening because people care more about a law written over 200 years ago than the thousands of innocent lives lost each year. Excluding suicides, at least 15,549 people died gun-related deaths in 2017. As well as this, there were over 31,157 gun-related injuries in that same year. That’s 15,549 people that could still be alive. Most of who had futures and families and loved ones and plans and lives. And thanks to an outdated amendment, they’re gone. Maybe one of these victims would have been able to motivate or galvanize this country to make a real change. At this point, it’s hard to imagine who or what can be the catalyst for this change. Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s you. All I know is that we need change, and we need it now.
