On October 1, 2017, around 10:00 p.m., a mass shooting in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada occurred while a concert at the Mandalay Bay hotel was being held. The shooter is suspected to be a 64-year-old man, Stephen Craig Paddock. According to CBS news, he’s believed to have shot numerous rounds from the 32nd floor of the hotel. Also, it’s believed that he obtained at least 47 firearms, purchased from various states such as Nevada, California, Utah, and Texas, according to CNN news. According to NBC news, this is the worst and deadliest shooting in modern U.S. by a lone perpetrator–59 dead, and over 500 injured.
I first got the breaking news from CNN live while doing my morning workout. While sweat was pouring down from my face after a good 30-minute run, I looked on the TV screen and thought that CNN was being biased against President Trump about a random policy that he talked nonsense about. I was wrong; I saw the headlines–I was angry as hell deep inside.
I thought, “AGAIN! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD?!” I try to ignore the grief the rest of the morning and had a good workout, but my heart was worried.
What was I so worried about? I called my mom about the shooting and told her how I felt about it, in which she agreed with me. I worry because what she told me was to be careful of my surroundings. My mother knows I was sheltered and I couldn’t go anywhere out of the house because my parents were strict. It’s my first time away from home and I don’t know what could happen if I don’t be careful. I don’t know whether an incident like Las Vegas can happen in my area, I don’t know if ODU is going to have a lockdown because of a weapon or a shooter is on campus, and who knows? If I’m not careful, then something bad can happen to me.
This is the problem with not just me, it’s the mass media and society–being constantly worried and fearful of an incident like Las Vegas, but never solving for justice. At first, many were about to blame the incident on an Islamic terrorist group, but to find out that this incident could’ve been domestic terrorism–I think we should all be wary that this could be anybody in the U.S. regardless of who they are. It’s preposterous that anyone can start shooting a place at any time and date, then kill themselves because they may not want to face criminal charges, already had 15 minutes of fame, or they might have real psychological issues we need to look deep into.
The U.S. criminal justice system can sentence the shooter or a suspect associated with the shooter to life in prison, but it will never bring true justice to the victims. The victims who didn’t know a mass shooting was going to happen on Mandalay Bay. It will put trauma onto their families. They might now have to be wary of what could happen to their surroundings. They won’t know what can happen. They don’t know the true motives of the perpetrator. They don’t know how we as Americans can solve this issue of mass shootings. Nobody knows how much fear can affect all of us in a society, that’s the heartbreaking outcome of a mass shooting.
~ Our Her Campus team and Old Dominion University thoughts and prayers are with the victims.~