On Sunday, I woke up to news that no longer seems to be out of the ordinary. I woke up to find out that there had been another mass shooting in America. However, as the day went on, and details came out, I realized that this shooting was abnormal, mostly due to the size.
I live in Florida, about two hours away from Orlando, and as I went through my day I could not escape the news. People all around me were traveling down there to give blood, and every place with a TV had coverage of the shooting on.
This being surrounded by news of a tragedy is not new to me. I used to live in Connecticut, a little over an hour away from Newtown. I can still remember a classmate being told that her little cousin was in the school. I can still remember sitting in my living room watching the news in absolute horror. I went to the vigils and prayed for the victims and their families. Within a week, my school had a tall new fence surrounding the building, new procedures for entering the building, and a lot more locked doors. And yet, these protections would not really have helped us against an attack. If someone had wanted to get into the school, they would have been able to. When there were no major changes in gun laws after Sandy Hook, I couldn’t help but think that this was it. Once our country had decided that they could let little six and seven-year-olds be gunned down and do nothing about it, there was nothing I could think of that would change our laws. And so far there hasn’t been. Since Sandy Hook the frequency of mass shootings has just increased, and now we have come to Orlando.
One man took 49 other lives. People who just wanted to go out and have a fun Saturday night with friends and family were instead met with a nightmare. My Facebook feed is filled with news articles, support for the victims and their families, and also comments about how if people inside the club had had guns, fewer lives would have been taken. This is what I want to respond to.
First of all, will someone please explain to me why it would be a good idea for someone to take their gun with them when they went to a club? I genuinely cannot think of one good reason. Most people who go to a club drink while they are there, and there doesn’t seem to be anything good that could come out of a drunk person wielding a weapon, but perhaps that is just me.
Secondly, the shooter (whose name I will not use because he does not deserve that type of notoriety), was using a semi-automatic weapon, an AR-15. Why is it that people are still able to buy these? They have been used in Sandy Hook, Aurora, San Bernardino, and now Orlando. It seems to me that there is no good reason for a person to own one of these weapons.
People argue that anyone should be able to own guns because of the 2nd Amendment, but I have news for them. The 2nd Amendment was written about muskets in the 1700’s. When it was written, people couldn’t have even dreamed about how guns would develop. The 2nd Amendment gives people the right to keep and bear arms, and I agree that this should not be taken away. However, putting restrictions on what guns are available to the public, and who can buy them does not go against this amendment. How is it that a person who was interviewed by the FBI twice about terrorism was able to go out and legally purchase an AR-15? If this doesn’t show you that it is time for America to finally take a look at our gun laws and actually make an effort to change them, then I am not sure what will.
I, for one, am sick of waking up to hear of another shooting. Of reading articles about the victims, and hearing stories of their last moments. Of praying for more families who will never truly recover. There is nothing that would make me happier than if I could stop waking up to this news. Than if students could stop making plans on how they would barricade the doors, and where they would hide. Than if families could stop being torn apart by senseless violence. I stand with Orlando, just like I stood with Sandy Hook and numerous other places, but I also call for America to finally make a change.