Common Gun Sense Doesn’t Need To Be So Complex
Who in your life would have to die from gun violence for you to support gun control?
An outrageous question to ask somebody. It’s rude, unfair and unkind. But so are the repercussions of gun violence. Not all gun owners are monsters, many are responsible and act with caution. But for the ones who own assault rifles because they can—why? An assault rifle is meant for military combat, it has no purpose in society. It’s common sense.
Another school shooting has come and gone in America. This time, leaving 10 families broken in Texas. The lack of media attention is problematic.
Is it because we’ve become too immune to these atrocities?
Is it because of the Royal Wedding? Do we just expect it?
Is it because the shooter didn’t use a handgun instead of an assault rifle?
While I understand and respect the need to grieve and process, it is in these moments of darkness where we need to act. It is shameful that the land of the free and home of the brave has experienced 22 school shootings this year. More civilian lives have been lost then military servicemen this year. It’s not a competition for loss of life, but only one of those occupations knowingly agree to make the ultimate sacrifice—and it’s not the 10th grader in math class. Some want to argue semantics on what classifies a “school shooting” as a means of justification. Just because it doesn’t become a headline, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It only proves that as a society we are increasingly more numb to these tragedies.
As someone who grew up uninterested in politics, I can’t help but feel outraged, each and every time. Because it keeps happening. I’ve graduated college, but I have friends and family members who have to face this epidemic every day. I’m not okay with that.
Clear backpacks won’t block a bullet. But it will pacify the ones who think it will act as a line of defense. Instead, it’s a pitiful attempt to pretend as change is happening to make ‘we the people’ believe that it will never happen again, but that’s obviously another blatant lie. Because it keeps happening. We cannot selectively choose when we want to care. We can’t allow our geographic proximity to influence our call to action. It is increasingly more evident that these shootings can and will happen anywhere. It has been proven that the good guy with a gun method doesn’t always work. Arming teachers will add more fear and chaos in an already stressful and unthinkable situation. Sure, you can argue people kill people, but where’s the accountability on the ones giving them the guns? The ones that legally allow people to own military-grade weapons of war? That is equally important to the narrative, but we choose to look the other way. I don’t think the outrage will ever go away. It’s unfathomable to accept that we value guns over students. It doesn’t need to be this way, that’s common sense. Gun violence does NOT need to be the fourth cause of death for children.
There are practical ways to prevent this, but we cannot allow our representatives to ignore this growing epidemic.
For the people who cannot understand why we demand gun control in this country, ask yourself:
Who in my life would have to die from gun violence before I support gun control? 
