Late Sunday morning in Texas, 26 people were shot while praying at their church.
Is our nation on track to becoming numb to gun violence? According to the Gun Violence Archive, this year alone we have had 13,139 gun related deaths with 309 individuals killed or injured in a mass shooting. Because of this, I’m unsurprised and I’m tired. Frankly, we all should be tired of the violence and tired of these numbers constantly going up. We should be tired of being a part of a nation that’s constantly grieving. We should be tired because we should be doing more, and we should be better protecting our fellow citizens.
Simply put, someone’s right to own a gun should not infringe on the safety of others. It is the job of our government to take care of our people, and it is our job to hold the government to that standard. While it is easy to argue that anyone who wants a gun will find a way to get one, it is also true that when you reduce the access to a resource, people will be less likely to use said resource.
We create laws and restrictions in civil society not because we expect it to end all wrongdoing, but because we know that it will end some of it. Gun restriction laws won’t stop all gun violence, but it would likely reduce it. As a nation, we need to value a single human life more than the right to bear arms.
This does not need to be a political issue. The issue of gun control should not be an attack on gun owners; it should be an attempt to better public safety through more restrictive laws. How can we knowingly continue to raise future generations in a country where both citizens and legislators fail to make necessary attempts to protect their people? Maybe gun control isn’t the answer, but can we really look at the families of victims of gun violence and tell them that it’s not worth a shot?
Things won’t change until people take action. Be sure to contact your state representative and let them know why gun control matters to you.
Credit: Jay Baker