Devin Patrick Kelly. Stephen Paddock. Omar Saddiqui Mateen. Seung-Hui Cho. Adam Lanza. These are the names of the gunman’s responsible for some of the most deadliest shootings in US history. It’s crazy to think that after so many shootings, the government has done absolutely nothing to change gun laws. But why is that? I always ask myself that question. What is the problem with changing our gun laws? After the Port Arthur massacre in Australia in 1996, the Australian government changed their gun laws. Many weapons, including semi-automatic weapons, were banned. Ever since the gun laws changed, Australia hasn’t had a mass shooting since.
Why is the US still struggling over a solution that is so simple? Countless people have died at the hands of a mass shooting. It’s not something I would want my own children to worry about. It happens in places where you’d least expect it. From concerts, a college campus, an elementary school, a movie theater, to a Church. Should I be afraid to go out? Should I just stay in my home all the time to keep myself safe from a mass shooting? These are the questions many people ask of themselves everyday. People are afraid to go anywhere because of the risk of being killed by some crazy individual with a gun.
It’s sad that it’s easier to obtain a gun in this country than to adopt a puppy. It shouldn’t be this easy for anyone to obtain a gun, yet alone a semiautomatic weapon. If our gun laws were changed, maybe those 20 first graders would be alive doing big things in the sixth grade. Maybe all the countless other people killed in mass shooting would be alive living their lives. It needs to stop. We need gun reform today. Not tomorrow, not next month, not next year. We need it today. We need gun reforms now instead of waiting for the next mass shooting to grieve over.