For many of us in the United States, the events on October 1, 2017 were painfully familiar.
A little after 10 p.m. Sunday, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a concert from the Mandalay Bay Hotel in the Las Vegas strip. Nearly 22,000 people were in attendance at the Route 91 Harvest Festival – a three day country music festival – enjoying Jason Aldean’s closing performance. Video taken by concert-goers shows the crowd running from the scene as shots ring out and people drop to the ground. Police later found Paddock, age 64, dead in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Reports say his room was a well-stocked arsenal; police removed 23 weapons from the premises and another 19 from his home. 33 of the weapons had been purchased since October 2016.
Early Monday morning, we learned 59 people had died, at least 500 were wounded, and more were missing or out of touch with family members. Las Vegas is now the deadliest mass shooting in American history, surpassing Orlando’s Pulse Night Club shooting by a factor of 10.
In line with a pattern established over decades of similar incidents, the media and public at large turned to speculating about the shooter. In recent days, it seems little will come of this until the end of the investigation. Stephen Paddock was a well-off retiree, a former accountant and real-estate speculator who had a gambling habit. He had a nice, suburban home, a girlfriend, and two small airplanes. The shooting has been labeled a “lone wolf attack.” Despite the ISIS claim on the attack and the swirling idea that Paddock may have been mentally unstable, no one has been able to solve the frightening puzzle. Paddock passed all criminal background checks required to purchase the guns he amassed. There is no evidence to support claims of mental illness, or vigilante motivations, or ties to known terrorist organizations.
For Americans, the aftermath is frighteningly commonplace. Many of us in college today have been hearing the phrase “thoughts and prayers” since the Virginia Tech Massacre of 2007. Many of us can recite the long list of mass shootings from memory. We, as a nation, come together in the worst circumstances determined to turn it into a positive – the 2-day-long lines of Las Vegans to donate blood; the men and women first-responders who ran head-long into a war zone to do their jobs; the patients pushing hospital staff towards others who needed their help more.
We help the injured, mourn the dead, and insist this is not who we are. Our thoughts and prayers and outrage ends with the next news cycle. It doesn’t have to.
As of October 5, 2017, the National Rifle Association (NRA or “the gun lobby”) has agreed to back regulations of “bump-stock” devices— a clip-on accessory that allows rifles to work like fully automatic machine guns (weapons that were banned in the United States in the late 1980s, early 1990s). Senator Diane Feinstein has already drafted a proposed ban on bump-stocks and seems to be gaining traction. Should she succeed, this would be a well-fought victory for the Senator, who has been pushing for harsher restrictions since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.
This is where we come in.
Call your senators. Call your congressmen. Write them emails, phone their offices and leave a message at the beep. If you would like to speak to an actual person, who will listen and take down your opinion, call your representatives’ staffers. The Quartz has guide to getting a staffer on the phone, written by someone who holds that job themselves. Rethink Media has another, immensely helpful guide on effectively engaging with politicians that will useful for progressing any issue, including gun policy.
Las Vegas is a tragedy, but it should also be the last straw. No one should be left to wonder if their lecture, their dorm, their street will be next. Change is important, change can happen, and we should all be a part of that change.
Pennsylvania State Senators:
Robert Casey Jr. (Senate Dem.)
Patrick Toomey (Senate GOP)
Pennsylvania State Representatives:
Robert Brady (Dem), Philadelphia
Dwight Evans (Dem.), Philadelphia
Mike Kelly (GOP), Erie
Scott Perry (GOP), Harrisburg
Ryan Costello (GOP), Downingtown
Michael Doyle (Dem.), Pittsburgh
Tim Murphy (GOP), Greater Pittsburgh/Mt. Lebanon