Mass shootings- the new norm?
It seems like every times you turn on the television, the news is reporting a
new shooting that took place, usually in different areas of the country. A deca
de ago
it would have been a shock; citizens would consider it a tragedy or a seriou
s threat
to our nation. This year alone there have been three hundred and fifty-three m
ass
shootings recorded- the equivalent to a shooting a day. How many of those
shootings do we actually hear about?
This year in the United States, there have been about five major mass
shootings that have made national headlines, almost immediately pro
mpting
government officials to urge for change, whether it be with stricter gun re
gulations
or more mental health initiatives. On June 18, 2015 in Charleston, Sout
h Carolina, a
young,
Dz
white suprem
ac
ist,
dz
Dylann Roof opened fire at a black historical church,
killing nine individuals, investigated as a hate crime. On November 29, 2015
,
gunman Robert Lewis Deer entered a Planned Parenthood facility and opened
fire,
killing three individuals in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A few days l
ater on
December 2, 2015, fourteen individuals were confirmed dead in a shooting
massacre in San Bernardino, California. The two attackers, Syed Rizwan Far
ook and
Tashfeen Malik, were heavily armed when they opened fire at a holiday
party.
Officials said Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic state but there is no evid
ence
that the couple was connected to a terrorist group. The mass shootings and terr
or
attacks recently in Paris (November 13, 2015) lead the debate on who is co
nsidered
a terrorist and tend to stir up feelings about the Muslim population being conne
cted
to terrorism. Discriminations are being made, fear smothers the country, and p
eople
beg for change to be made so they and their loved ones don
’
t end up with the same
fate.
What can we do? As American citizens, when it comes time to vote in the next
election about these national security topics we have to get out to vote for the
officials that will best represent us. We can urge for more gun regulatio
ns and we
can ask for more mental health institutions, or we can keep sitting back a
cting as
though nothing has occurred. One thing that we have to remember is that we canno
t
discriminate or place judgments on all individuals from a particular group
; every
person deserves a chance to live a life free of judgment. Overall, in these r
ecent
months we have seen the tears and heartbreak nations have gone through
due to
the wrongful deaths of innocents and the terrorism that plagues these nations
.
There comes a time when enough is a enough. Is this that time? Or do we sit back
and accept this as a horrid new norm?
​