California, Louisiana, Nashville, Michigan… We can stay here for a thousand characters and it will still not be enough to resume all of the mass shootings that happened in the US just in 2023. On January 23rd, the number was 36. On February 14th, the number was 67. On March 15th, it was 111. Now, on April 2nd, we achieved the mark of 131 mass attacks in 2023. In 2022, in total there were 647. In 2021, 693. It’s the fourth month of the year and people who need to be responsibilized are washing their hands in blood.
Maybe you didn’t notice, but 134 is almost half a year. There were already more mass shootings than days of the year in 2023. This kind of situation is possible because of gun politics in the US. The country has the biggest estimated number of guns by head, reaching 120.5 guns per 100 people. Since 1791, politics made by white-cis-rich-man has insisted on the fantasy of “securance for the good citizen”. However, as we see, black people are not citizens, neither Jewish, homosexuals, nor people who don’t agree with the opinion of the gun’s owner and, apparently, nor kids.
Let’s be honest, deep in your heart you know that posting on your Twitter or on your Instagram stories a tribute for the hundreds of dead people in the past four months will not make any difference if you’re still voting for GOP politicians or people who are funded by the NRA.
A picture of Congressman Andy Ogles, who represents the district where Tennessee’s shooting happened last week, has been circulating on the internet. It’s a family Christmas card, and in it, the entire family is holding big guns (assault weapons) – between them, three kids. This was in 2021. Now, in 2023, after the school shooting, he said he was “devastated”. Doesn’t he know that the blood of the victims is in his hands too? That because of politics like him attacks like that keep happening?
There are ways to stop gun violence. A licensing program, the same way that is made for drivers. Why not for guns? Aren’t they as dangerous as a car accident? Over it, supporting community gun violence prevention programs, background checks for all gun-sellers, expanding coverage for mental health, banning automatic high-capacity assault weapons… No, neither of these options are as important as banning TikTok “for our safety”, as say Politics and Congressists, right?
the survivors
How to live after surviving a mass shooting? How to live the entire rest of your life with this trauma?
The place where we’re supposed to feel the safest, after our homes, is our academic spaces. But how would it be taking into consideration that 95% of American public schools practice survival exercises in case of a mass shooting inside of the space? A campaign from the movement March for Our Lives shows a child teaching a group of adults how to survive an attack. Is that what kids are supposed to be doing, learning how to fight for their lives instead of learning the alphabet?
The organization Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund quotes a parent who says: “My kindergarten daughter got stuck in the bathroom by herself during practice and spent a year in therapy for extreme anxiety. Even when changing schools, she still needs to use the ward bathroom because he has PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from that event”.
WHO’s next?
As one plus one is two, guns lead to tragedies. Always will. A hundred and ninety-five people died in mass shootings. A hundred and ninety-five. There are eight months left until the end of the year, and what will we do to stop it? How many more mothers, fathers, students, sons, daughters, friends, family members, and kids will have to die before someone decides to start doing something? What if the next victim is someone from your family?
Whatever your political feelings are, we should never celebrate the cult of guns.
Together we are stronger. Together we can end gun violence. Text ACT to 644-33 to join Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, and help us stop America’s gun violence crisis.
————————————————-
The article above was edited by Giulia De Demo Assis.
Liked this type of content? Check out Her Campus Cásper Líbero home page for more!