How many people must die before America’s diametrically opposed political parties can try to come together to make changes?
How many must die before we can at least try an assault weapons ban and see if anything changes?
How many must die before we can make major changes to the way we deal with mental health in this country?
In light of the Walmart shooting in Texas and the shooting in downtown Dayton Ohio just FOURTEEN hours later, we need to come together. We have no choice. America is falling apart. I cannot say that I am proud to be an American when I hear of shooting after shooting taking place but almost nothing changing.
Lawmakers try to make bills to adjust gun control, but they are always shut down.
This shooting occurred in Texas, a state with very loose gun laws. People like to say that shootings occur more with restrictive laws. That isn’t the case here.
In Texas, people are allowed to carry handguns in most situations. Convicted felons can regain the right to carry after five years out of prison. Lawmakers had tried to place a ban on bump stocks, but that bill was never passed. They tried to make a law requiring background checks for people who buy guns at gun shows…that didn’t pass either.
How many times does the same thing need to happen before anything changes?
How many times do news outlets need to promise not to share the details of the perpetrators since it has been found that many of them revel in the idea that their crimes will cause their names to be all over the headlines, yet we quickly learn their names, ages, races, and backgrounds almost immediately?
People will be discussing this shooting for probably around two weeks, considering that it was a more major shooting than the ones where only a couple of people are killed. They will debate. They will get angry. They will fail to compromise on any front, and the topic will be pushed to the back burner.
Fast forward a few weeks (or more likely days…or in our case today, just fourteen hours) and we will have another young adult white male who most likely purchased his weapons legally and probably has some history of mental health issues who will commit a similar crime.
I don’t mean to stereotype, but that’s the typical situation.
People who want looser gun laws claim that this happens because the United States is too strict with gun control. We need to train and arm our teachers, they say. We need to eliminate gun-free zones. We need more states to allow open carry so that everyday citizens can fight back. But we have no data that any of that will improve the problem. If you look at my previous blog, you will see how many accidents happen in schools where guns are allowed.
Let’s look at some data from Mother Jones and a study that looked into 62 separate shootings that occurred from 1982-2012:
-Over 3/4 of the guns were purchased legally
-Many locations were schools and workplaces, but also restaurants, shopping malls, religious buildings, concert areas, and government buildings. No location seems to be off-limits.
-44 of the assailants were white males, with an average age of 35
Look at this map of mass shootings. It is absolutely horrifying.
Gun violence is now a leading cause of death in America, according to Business Insider:
“The chance of dying from gun violence overall is about 50% greater than the lifetime risk of dying while riding inside a car, truck, or van (a category that excludes pedestrian, cyclist, and other deaths outside of a motor vehicle). It’s also more than 10 times as high as dying from any force of nature, such as a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, flood, or lightning strike.”
“These measures suggest Americans are more likely to die from gun violence than the combined risks of drowning, fire and smoke, stabbing, choking on food, airplane crashes, animal attacks, and natural disasters.”
Now, despite the fact that these numbers are alarming, gun violence is still a topic that has little research associated with it. How can this be? Are we afraid of the answers we may find? Are gun owners afraid that their rights may be restricted if we go forward with these studies?
Other countries have experienced some mass shootings and within just weeks or months, they have passed restrictions. In New Zealand, it took only 6 days after their recent mass shooting to pass restrictions. 6 days, “Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a national ban on all military-style semiautomatic weapons, all high-capacity ammunition magazines and all parts that allow weapons to be modified into the kinds of guns used in last week’s attack” (NY Times).
Now let’s compare that to the Las Vegas shooting: “After a gunman killed 58 people in Las Vegas in 2017, it took 443 days for the United States to ban bump stocks,” Over a year just to ban bump stocks.
I won’t get on a whole separate tangent, but our country is so divided that it takes years for even minor changes to occur. Republicans and Democrats seem less likely to see eye to eye on issues than ever before. Sometimes I wonder if people support certain viewpoints only because of their political party. As an independent, I don’t feel tied to support or reject laws simply based on my political affiliation. I make decisions based on what I believe is the best option for the most people.
We NEED to come together. We NEED to compromise.
We can’t just let America continue to allow innocent people to die almost daily at the hands of these killers.
And if you have the time for this long article, I highly recommend reading it: “We Asked 12 Mass Shooters: What Would Have Stopped You?”
Peppermintfrost 