Now more than ever, gun violence is a conversation nearly everybody in America should be having. If you aren't a part of this conversation, then you should be and here's why:
Being born in 1999, I am a member of what is known as Generation Z (children born between 1995-2014). Being a part of this generation means that I have been exposed to endless media coverage of America's most deadly mass shootings.
This also means that I began to form opinions regarding gun violence at a very early age. During the same year I was born, thirteen innocent lives were taken at a high school in Columbine, Colorado. Although I learned about this horrific mass murder later on in life, the crime did not leave a huge impression on me simply because I did not live through the horror. The truth is, no tragedy tends to make a meaningful impact unless it effects you personally.
On July 17, 2015, closer to home, a terrorist named Dylann Roof murdered nine church-goers within the walls of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was the summer before my sophomore year of high school. I was staying an hour away from Charleston when the mass shooting occurred. I vividly recall the deep ache I felt in my stomach when I saw the footage on the TV in the living room. How could something so horrible happen so close to home?
A few years after the shooting that took place in Charleson, I now find myself a freshman in college in the city that was home to this tragic shooting. I consider Charleston to be my second home and my residence is 0.3 miles away from the Emanuel AME Church, and every time I walk by it I feel the same deep ache in my stomach that I first felt on July 17, 2015. Even now I still feel that same ache in my stomach when I remember the nine lives that were lost senselessly to gun violence.
The United States has more mass shootings than any other developed country (something you can read more about here ). The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects American citizens' right to bear arms. Although the United States has laws in place to prevent mentally unstable citizens from purchasing any kind of weaponry, it is unfortunately very easy for a dangerous weapon to wind up in the wrong hands.
In the wake of all of these mass shootings and acts of terror, gun violence has now become an issue that is being spoken about now more than ever. Very recently in a flourishing Florida county, a mass shooting took place at Stoneman Douglas High School where seventeen students and teachers senselessly lost their lives.
American politicians have been offering condolences to the students and their families, but the students had enough. They're now beginning to demand policy change on multiple social media platforms in order to evoke the change we desperately need in this country.
The time for change is now, and the time to talk about gun violence is now.
