It’s been almost a month since the elementary school shooting at Uvalde, Texas. This event made the small city a household name in a nation with too many tragedies, too many thoughts and prayers.
It feels like the United States is going through the motions. It scares me, but I feel we all have become desensitized to these unnecessary tragedies to some extent. We go through our processes and we seemingly move on without any change.
It’s not normal to learn the stories of these kids, practically babies, and then just go about our daily routines like someone didn’t shoot a bunch of kids. What’s even more sadistic is it’s constantly getting looped on TV.
Journalists write, parents post angrily on Facebook, some of us directly call out for change. Despite this, the National Rifle Association and their various right-leaning politicians — or “cronies” as I like to call them — just send prayers while standing in defense of their Second Amendment rights.
After a week or maybe even a month, nothing more happens. No laws change. What difference does the victims and the survivors’ sacrifice make?
Since I was in school, it seems like the amount of school shootings has skyrocketed. There have been drills, threats and stopped attempts both in middle schools and high schools.
I grew up in a time when this wasn’t as common. My brother, who is 13, started practicing school shooting drills in kindergarten..
Why is it that Columbine or Sandy Hook weren’t enough? How can we look these children in the eyes and see them as lesser than the opportunity to have a weapon of mass destruction?
At least 185 students and teachers have lost their lives in mass shootings since Columbine. This isn’t counting domestic terror attacks like the hate attack in Buffalo, New York, or other non-school-related mass shootings. With gun supporters it’s always, “it won’t stop the determined criminals, it’ll flood the black market with illegal guns,” but the alternative is more guns. The U.S. is already doing that, and it’s not working.
We can’t arm teachers, either. The nation doesn’t trust teachers with curriculum, but we’re going to trust them to be security guards? And where will these guns come from? If our solution is to arm teachers, that means that, as a country, we not only think this is going to happen again, but also subconsciously believe our police are ineffective.
Meanwhile, other countries like Australia, New Zealand, Britain and others implemented gun restrictions, and the rates of mass shootings plummeted. In Australia, a 1996 attack prompted gun buybacks that retrieved and melted down around a million firearms. The rate of mass shootings plummeted and, so far, only one has happened in the 26 years since.
I call out every NRA supporter, gun lover, “Pro-lifer” and every person who sees this tragedy and targets the trans community with misinformation about the sexual orientation of the shooter instead of being concerned why the shooting happened in the first place.
How many more kids will have to survive like Miah Cerillo, who had to smear her peer’s blood on herself to not get killed? Why is the U.S. more worried about gas prices, abortion rights and suppressing minorities than it is about the lives of innocent children?
It’s only June and there have been 27 school shootings and 246 mass shootings this year. When 9-year-olds have to escape gunmen through classroom windows, you know your nation has a gun problem.
How many more schools need to have a tragedy before enough is enough? How many more drills or actual events will our sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers and loved ones have to experience? Enough is enough.
