The worst mass shooting in U.S. history occurred on Sunday, Oct. 1, in Las Vegas at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. During the final performance, a gunman identified as Stephen Paddock opened fire on an audience of around 22,000 people, killing 58 people and injuring over 400 more. In 2017 alone, there have been over 300 accounts of mass shootings that killed or injured people, and no policy introduced by Congress to reform gun control.
In my lifetime alone, there have been four mass shootings deemed to be “the deadliest in history.” Too many times I’ve woken up to heartbreaking news of death that is often justified as being influenced by mental instability, negating the fact that gun control laws are lenient to the point of allowing people with mental disorders to purchase and carry automatic weapons. The redundancy of the tragedies I’ve watched unfold on the news is blatantly ignored because of political leader’s inability to repeal the Second Amendment.
We have seen too many catastrophes and watched too many schools commence into lockdown mode because an intruder roamed the hallways with a gun. We have seen children shoot their peers and parents without the government contemplating the convenience of obtaining firearms. If Congress continues to slack on gun control laws, we will see no change in behavior and no decrease in this crime. Why isn’t talk of reform on gun control laws the first thing discussed after mass shootings? It isn’t unrealistic to ban guns, especially since it has proven to decrease crime in countries that have implemented stricter gun control laws.
Policy is necessary to prevent horrific mass shootings and eliminate crime in general. After the Port Arthur Massacre, a mass shooting that killed 35 people and injured 18 others, Australia implemented stricter gun control, resulting in the homicide rate decreasing by 25 percent, the lowest it had been in the last 25 years. Without question, Australia saw a decrease in mass shootings, so why shouldn’t America follow suit? Everyone agrees that mass shootings are tragic, devastating and unacceptable. But when it comes to enact policy that increases gun control, people tend to value their second amendment rights over the lives of innocent people taken by individuals who should not have been allowed to purchase guns in the first place. How long will we make excuses for tragedies that could have been prevented had we enacted stronger policies?
Photo Credit: Cover Image, Image 1