I am not a person that follows the news much. It makes me sad to see all the horrible things that people are doing to each other. However, you can’t avoid what is happening around you. Gun violence is becoming normal in our everyday lives.
I hate to say it, but the moment it became real for me was not that one time in high school where we were all hiding under desks because a kid roaming the halls with a gun. The real moment where I feared for my life was September 29th, 2018. I was at Global Citizen Festival with my best friend Odyssey and my aunt Jessica sitting in the grass waiting for the next act to come onto the stage. That’s when people started running toward the exit, trampling us and the other people that were sitting on the floor. Out of the three of us, my aunt had it the worst with people stepping on her ankles and legs leaving her in pain for a couple days after the event. During the stampede of people, we managed to finally stop one person to ask what was going on and they just screamed at us “someone has a gun,” and that’s when my heart stopped. Odyssey looked at me with such fear that I have never seen before. She wanted to run for it like everyone else, but my aunt Jessica said no, “we have to lay low. If we run, we become targets.” A lot of people stayed running around us, and there was even an elderly woman there with her family that was struggling to get up with everything going on around her. It was all so terrifying just lying there on the ground praying that everything would be okay. At the end of the commotion, there was an announcement made that the ‘gunshots’ were just a barrier falling against another. The panic ended, yet the fear is never going to leave us.
It doesn’t just end there. This Halloween, my friends went out to have a fun time at a party, but they came home early after being shot by a BB gun. My friend who was hurt was bleeding and had bruising weeks later. “It happened so fast,” she told me. They were just walking down the sidewalk, just about to go home because there were no fun parties. When a small, dark car pulled up with a bunch of guys in Halloween masks and start yelling, “Do you wanna try something?” one of the boys yelled from the car. Then, popping sounds surrounded them, and one of the girls took a step toward them and asks, “Did you just shoot me?” This just resulted in her being shot another time and the masked boys driving away quickly.
The issues with guns in America have been going on for far too long. With all the shootings in different places ranging from schools, concerts, bars, clubs, movie theaters, restaurants, stores, to places of worship. It is easier to get your hands on a gun than it is to do a lot of things. In some states, you can even buy a gun at just 18 years old, when you can’t do a lot of things at 18. That’s terrifying, and yet all that has really been done after each tragedy are tons of memorials and rallies, yet nothing ever really happens. Something needs to happen, and it needs to happen soon before any more lives are lost due to this negligence.
It makes no sense to me, as to why people would go around shooting other people. The fact that we live in a time where people are afraid to go out because they are afraid someone is going to walk out with a gun and start shooting is ridiculous. Gun violence often hits too close to home with the people of the U.S. and we have to voice our opinions and be heard to make change for ourselves.