Dear Americans,
I awoke this morning to the heartbreaking news of the Las Vegas mass shooting. I was more disappointed than sad. The reports after the shooting trickled in slowly. Social media awash with videos that were rife with fear. There were over 50 dead and 500 injured, with more filtering in from other hospitals and many still missing. The culprit was a 64 year old white, American resident of Mesquite, Nevada. He shot down at the fairgrounds from the32nd floor of the Mandalay hotel, firing on a crowd of over 13,000 people. In an interview with the police, the shooter was said to have killed himself upon being found. After a search of his room, 10 assault rifles were located. Police have decided that this man is not a terrorist, despite state laws describing mass shootings as terrorism.
The media and the police have handled this mass shooting in a very upsetting and predictable way. One headline read, “64 Year old man living in retirement home, no prior run-in’s with police,” as if he wasn’t just responsible for the deaths of upwards of 50 people. Another stated that, “He was a recent divorcee, with a tendency for gambling who had lost a lot of money,” readying the platform to excuse him. The media rallies around these white shooters as lone wolves, tortured, depressed, turning to mass murder as their only outlet for this sadness.
If not making the public empathize with murderers, they are pushing an excuse of mental illness, further stigmatizing them in the eyes of the people. Explaining that the nice, young man who entered a school and violently murdered everyone in his path was radicalized by a mental illness is a dangerous statement to make. The man who purchased a room at a hotel, set up his assault rifle, and pointed it out the window into a large crowd of people, did not do so because he was depressed. The mentally ill are not dangerous or violent.
Finally, we focus on race. I really don’t want to make this a race thing, but it so blatantly is. Had this man not been white his criminal record would’ve been found, the word “terrorist” would be shouted; not whispered, and no excuses would be made for him. I see him as he is.
Over time I have become numb to the news of gun violence in America. After Sandy Hook, with the death of over 20 children, and Pulse, which happened in my own state and the city I now live in, I realized that all this death and suffering was completely avoidable. Yet we have done nothing to avoid it, to prevent it. We can no longer be numb to the death toll we see every day in the United States. According to Everytown research, an average of 12,000 people are killed by gun violence each year in America, and every day an average of 93 people die from gun violence.
The United States has a very unique problem. With 6 times as many firearm homicides than Canada, and 16 times as many than Germany, the United States leads the world in amount of deaths by guns. While we comprise only a small percent of the world’s population (4.4%), we also hold 42% of the world’s civilian owned guns. The 2nd amendment protect’s a citizen’s right to bear arms, and after every mass shooting, in the wake of a discussion to increase gun control, people turn to the 2nd amendment in order to hinder progress.
In 2008, Japan had around 11 deaths by firearms. In comparison, in that same year, the U.S had around 587 firearm deaths just by accidental discharge. The reason behind the numbers are the strict gun control laws enforced by the Japanese government. Firearms are practically outlawed in Japan, and those that are not involve a long process to attain. To own a gun in Japan you must attend an all day class and pass a test, take a shooting range class, take a mental health and drug test at a hospital, and pass a background test. Then you must file the exact location of the gun in your home with the police, which must be locked and stored separately from the ammo, and retake the class and exams every three years. None of this sounds like an unreasonable amount of effort in order to own a dangerous weapon. But in the wake of one of the most horrendous acts of mass gun violence, the shooting of 27 children at Sandy Hook, the government responded with, “maybe we should ban the big guns?”
I am disappointed in the way America is right now, but I still hope for better. I am not trying to politicize tragedy. I am trying to mourn this unnecessary loss of life in the best way possible, changing the way these crimes are seen in America. Mass shooting at concerts, move theaters, schools, and football games should not be the norm. My first ever football game at UCF, I saw a police woman handling a massive assault rifle. My first emotion was fear. I knew she was there for our protection. The weapon in her hand meant to stop someone else, with potentially heinous intentions, from entering with a weapon. But I couldn’t help but wonder if that would be necessary in a world where I couldn’t purchase a hunting rifle at Walmart at the ripe age of 18.