I’m not against guns because one person’s sword is another
person’s shield but I have one question to ask and it should be taken
seriously. It’s a question that I’ve been wondering for the past couple of
years now and that question is, “What is it going to take?” What is it going to
take to make people in the United States realize that there is something wrong
with our views on mental health? There was a mass shooting at Umpqua Community
College located in Roseburg, Oregon. Several people are confirmed dead
including the shooter while 20 others are wounded and currently hospitalized.
People are already talking about stricter gun control laws
which is typical considering the situation and as usual, nothing is getting
done. A couple of years ago, Gabrielle Giffords who was a member of Congress
for Arizona was shot in the head by a deranged individual and survived. In
Aurora, Colorado, a maniac armed to the teeth walked into a theater during a midnight
show of The Dark Knight Rises and
murdered over 20 people. On December 14th, 2012 at Sandy Hook
Elementary School, a psychopath walked in and executed 20 innocent children and
four adults. If the sight of dead children doesn’t make you think there’s something
wrong with society then what will?
We’ve been talking about gun control for decades and nothing
happens but that’s not the issue because if someone wants to commit murder, a
gun isn’t the only option. There are several different ways that person can do
it. I have no doubt that there are countless sites that can show you how to
make whatever you’re looking for which is disturbing in itself if you really
think about it. So why is the United States only focused on one method of
killing? Certain people think it’s too easy to get guns in this country and
others think the laws are strict enough but nobody is asking, “Why do people
want these guns?”
Instead of focusing on the weapon, focus on the hand that
controls that weapon and why it’s being used in the first place. We need to
teach people to focus on the signs that someone may be a danger and report them
in order to prevent these incidents. The shooter at Umpqua ranted about doing
something terrible before it happened and we just found out about it. The
shooter of the theater in Aurora claimed that he was “The Joker” from Batman.
If you’re wondering why I’m not mentioning their names is because the last
thing I’m going to do is recognize the madmen.
If someone goes into a store and is buying a rifle with a
scope because they live in the country around a forest and animals then I’m
going to go with the belief that it’s for hunting purposes. If someone is buying
a small handgun to carry around because they live in a bad neighborhood then I’m
going to believe it’s for protection. But if you walk into someone’s house and
that person has a whole armory in a suburb then maybe that should raise a red
flag right there. Now maybe that person just likes to collects guns or maybe he
might be planning something. I don’t know and what’s worse is nobody seems to
know what to do because unfortunately, this happens way too much.
This country has become accustomed to hearing about gun
violence so much that we’ve become almost numb to it. Every day we hear about
someone getting gunned down because of some reason but I don’t blame the gun
any more then I would blame a truck because the driver was drunk. I blame the
driver because just like the murderers mentioned above, they all weren’t in the
right state of mind and someone should’ve paid attention to the signs. We need
to start paying attention to the people around us because that one call could
be the difference between help or homicide. Too much has been taken already.
