[Source: rollingstone.com]
October 1st, 2017. A gunman, safely and slyly nested in his hotel room, fired a deadly volley of metal Reapers into an unassuming crowd at a country music concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to New York Times, Stephen Paddock, with the “Do Not Disturb” sign ironically swinging from his door, took 58 innocent lives away on this fateful night. The victims had no relationship with this psychopathic murderer whatsoever; they simply loved the music that they were listening to when the bullets began to enter them without a warning. This catastrophe became America’s worst incident of mass shooting in its history. But why do such events keep happening?
Some say it’s the structure and history of America that cause its citizens to brandish their guns as often as they would clench their fists. As asserted by a documentary director Michael Moore in his Bowling for Columbine, the reason may lie behind America’s foreign policy that is laden with wars and confrontations. Maybe the scapegoat should be the reactionary media that fills its audience with fear and overreaction. As such, many hypotheses regarding the reason behind shootings have been drawn out. However, no definitive reason has been discovered, nor does there seem to be an indication of whether the real cause would actually be found at all. More importantly, no concrete action responding to these diverse hypotheses has yet taken place, and more and more people fall to concrete ground without knowing where the bullets are coming from.
Throughout the nation, whether the location be the Senate, Congress, a three-story mansion in Silicon Valley, or a slum in downtown Chicago, implementing practical and effective gun control seems to be a controversial issue. Hardcore gun lovers seem to stem their every opinion from the universally revered backbone of conservative Americans: the second Amendment. Dubbing their right to possess, carry, and shoot a gun as a Constitutionally protected right, the gun fanatics of America suspiciously and misleadingly arm themselves in 21st century America. Trusting themselves and themselves only, some choose to mistrust the government that has kept law and order for the past centuries and instead decide to trust their own fingers on the triggers.
[Source: slate.com]
Identifying a cause to such detrimental phenomenon is considered as a logical step in finding a solution. However, Americans have spent futile years attempting to find the true reason in their nation’s awe-striking number and degree of domestic gun violence. Perhaps finding the reason should not be a primary concern after all; perhaps, the real focus should be on legally and essentially terminating people’s indiscriminate access to unnecessary and violent weapons.
Gun control is no longer a political problem. Not a single person outside of that hotel room in Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas, had known what kind of tragedy was about to strike America. Establishing an effective gun control policy is a concern that every member of American society, no matter their political affiliation, must be a part of.
