By Sofia Alberga
Tuesday May 24, the date that left the world in devastation after the death of nineteen innocent children, and two teachers in Uvalde Texas. History has repeated itself too many times. While people speak up with anger and scrutiny over the countless rampages, action needs to take place. Gun reform has always been an issue but not brought close enough attention to until lives were taken and families left broken.
The 18 year old suspect had entered Robb Elementary School in south Texas with a handgun and malicious intent to destroy the bright futures of twenty one innocent lives after shooting his own grandmother. The shooter did act alone during this heinous crime, leaving parents and loved ones in a deep state of utter grief.
"My little love is now flying high with the angels above. Please don't take a second for granted. Hug your family and tell them you love them," said the mother of daughter Amerie who was involved in the shooting.
While this tragedy is profoundly shocking, in America it is depressingly familiar. The grief and sympathy shared around the country and around the world is pure and genuine, yet it has come to a point where no one is genuinely surprised that this could happen. This year alone in the United States, there have already been 27 school shootings.
Politicians have recognized this issue for a while now as uniquely in America, guns have become the leading cause of death for children and teenagers over car crashes. Although, bleeding hearts and deeply rooted views on gun control has not yet changed in response to their endless deaths and tragedies. The killing of innocent school children has reignited the debate over guns in America, but has not brought it closer to any resolution.
The impact of these acts of violence does not end at tragic loss of life, psychological science suggests that victims and bystanders are likely to lead to significant post-traumatic distress.
"How many scores of little children who witnessed what happened - see their friends die, as if they're in a battlefield, for God's sake," President Joe Biden said. "They'll live with it the rest of their lives."
The Texas shootings is not where the gun violence ends, just on May 14, a violent, racist attack in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York resulted in the death of Ruth Whitfield, an 86 year old woman, who was established as the the oldest person to die in a mass shooting. She was shot and killed along with 9 other people (who identified as Black).
The gunman was identified as Payton Gendron, an 18 year old a white man who in total shot 13 innocent lives in the attack. The federal authorities are investigating the case as a hate crime after linking online racist screeds to the shooter.
“The pain that this family is feeling right now, and the nine other families here in Buffalo – I cannot even begin to express our collective pain as a nation for what you are feeling in such an extreme way, to not only lose someone that you love, but through an act of extreme violence and hate,” Vice-President Camila Harris responded to the event.
Camila Harris also condemned at the time of the shooting that we are in the ‘epidemic of hate across our country that has been evidenced by acts of violence and intolerance’.
Citizens around the world (especially in the United States) are frustrated with the failure to act against these crimes, they argue that the ‘restrictions’ in place are insufficient. We should not have to become numb to gun violence in our community because we are far past the point where change should have been made.
“Evil came to that school in Texas, that grocery store in New York. We have to stand stronger. I call on all Americans this hour to join hands,” President Joe Biden said.
The world is threatened with this power of a granted weapon use. Innocent people lose their lives whether it's to race, gender or ethnicity, and safety should not have to be risked because of an outstanding gun reform. The constant devastation that surrounds communities should be enough to implement laws in order to ensure that schools, stores, places of worship, and streets are safe for everyone. There is no reason for the law to permit a teenager to bear arms, let alone an assault styled rifle.