Upsetting headlines are not hard to come by in the news. If anything, what’s surprising is their horrifying ability to become white noise. Yet there's always a few that you didn’t see coming—a few that you dread reading as they break through the rest and punch you in the gut at a new societal low—make you stop every time you catch an update in the paper or a report on the news with feelings as fresh as those felt on day one.

The theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado during the premiere of “The Dark Knight” on July 20, 2012 left me frozen. Mostly it left twelve, innocent movie-goers dead, along with seventy more injured.

Going to the movies again after that awful tragedy unfolded was a very unnerving return trip and, in retrospect, the Joseph Gordon-Levitt led sci-fi thriller, Looper, was probably not the right choice for that first leap back into reclining theater seats. I can’t even say whether I ended up liking or disliking the film. I certainly came in highly anticipating enjoyment. Instead my memory of the feature has been entirely enveloped by the experience of sitting there for two hours in complete cold sweat. To judge the film separate from the uncomfortable compulsion to tense up every time an explosion went off has become impossible. Especially since there were a sizable number of explosions. Mixed in with all that fear was anger. I hated being scared during an activity I’ve always enjoyed. This wasn’t my normal response. I was no novice to action sequences. The difference in my comfort level truly came down to a new sense of danger attached to a favorite past time.

Yet I kept going back to see more movies, and was able to relax a bit. The animated ad campaign at AMC theaters’ for turning off your cellphone, with the Jason mask from the "Friday the 13th" franchise and a chain saw, always set off a quick shudder, but my sense of safety returned.

Then on July 23, a week after James Holmes was found guilty on 165 counts of murder after a long, three year trial for the Aurora shooting (he’s since been sentenced to life in prison without parole), there was another shooting at a theater in Lafayette. And another near Nashville on Aug. 5 (in that case the weapon was later found out to be an airsoft gun). In fact, there’s been a lot of shootings this summer, period, from a church in Charleston to a marine base in Chattanooga. These are places and activities where you do not get shot, where the idea or concern should not even pop into your head. Granted there is no acceptable place to be shot—it may be cliché for there to be “danger in dark alleyways” but that in no way makes violence there acceptable—but we used to be able to say “these buildings are exempt.” Maybe we were naïve, or not cynical enough, or simply eager to forget realities, but the fact that we can no longer say even that is really disheartening.

Going to the movies needs to remain a safe diversion, a leisure activity where you can relax and see a film without having to worry about outside forces for two hours—precious escapism. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be intellectually engaged on real issues when I see a film. I just don’t want to pay for that engagement with my safety.

With the sadly wide array of options for shootings to touch on, I pick up my pen to write about the theater shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, because I go to the movies. I want to continue going to the movies, and while security measures at theaters is clearly something that needs to be universally reviewed, it is the core issue that truly needs to be addressed and that is America’s gun control policy.

Recently Amy Schumer, whose comedy, "Trainwreck," was playing when the shooting at Lafayette occurred, has come out alongside her cousin, New York Senator Charles Schumer, to call for a bill that would strengthen gun control laws. As reported by Chris Eggertson for Hitfix, this proposed bill would, “...strengthen background checks for firearms by rewarding states that submit records on convicted felons, individuals suffering from mental illness and domestic abusers to the federal background check system, and penalizing states that don't. The bill also includes language that would restore proposed cuts to mental health care programs, among other measures.”

Essentially, this bill sounds like a great first step towards getting a stricter gun policy in place that prevents people from having such easy access to weapons. As Amy Schumer herself said at the press conference for the bill, “These are my first public comments on the issue of gun violence, but I can promise you they will not be my last," [quote taken from Eggerston’s article]. Any changes to gun policy will not be easily won, let alone implemented, but it’s a fight that needs to be fought for the protection of everyone whose idea of fun on a Friday night is popcorn and a movie.