Dear Victims of Gun Violence,
I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to suffer in such a terrible way. I'm sorry that our country, the country that claims to pride itself in freedom and unity, is so divided and so conflicted regarding a topic such as gun violence, which you would think that everyone wanted to stop.
To those who have recently suffered in the Orlando incident and their families: my deepest apologies. I'm sorry that it had to come to this point. Our country claimed that after Sandy Hook, we would never suffer a tragedy like that again. And then the Aurora shooting happened, and we swore that we would work toward controlling gun violence. And then shortly after, the San Bernardino incident happened. And now, we have all of you. Not only that, but we also lose 91 people to gun violence each day, and most of these losses go unrecognized.
I'm sorry that America hasn't done anything to prevent this from happening again. We have endured tragedies like this for far too long, and I am sincerely sorry that we haven't learned our lesson yet. We should have done something to prevent this tragedy from occurring, but unfortunately our politicians are so self-absorbed and concerned with conflict with other politicians, so we are always unable to come up with a lasting solution.
So, as usual, the process will go like this. The tragedy occurs, America mourns the lives that have been lost. The president will have some sort of press conference regarding the lost lives. He/she will promise that we will never experience a tragedy like this ever again. People will remember the lives lost, and there might be a parade or two in honor of these lives. However, weeks later, people will begin to move on. People will no longer fight to make a change until a tragedy happens again. And then this process will yet again resume in its normal cycle.
So what does this mean? This means that we need to stop letting this cycle occur. We cannot let your lives be forgotten any longer. Instead of mourning for our losses and doing nothing more, we should mourn our losses and use the terrible feelings we are having to motivate ourselves to push for political change. These politicians need to surpass their bloated egos and compromise so that we can create an America where we can roam the world without the fear of being hurt or killed.
So to those who have lost their lives to gun violence, I am sorry. If your name has been lost in the names of thousands of others who have died in this cruel way, my sincerest apologies. But I will let you know that I, along with many other Americans, are sick of seeing this trend. We will no longer let your terrible experiences be forgotten. It is time for a change.
I don't care if you do or do not believe in gun control, but I do care that this conflict has led to a delay of a substantial decision to prevent crimes like this from occurring. Let's make a change before we continue to add onto the number of lives lost to gun violence.
It is time for a change. Let's create a world where people can spread love instead of hate, peace instead of violence and smiles instead of gunshots.
Sincerely,
A concerned American who is fighting for justice
