My roommate entered my living room early Thursday evening lacking the usual happy-to-see-me attitude. I thought to myself how it was odd that he walked into the house without immediately saying anything, especially after I said, “hello.”
He paced a few times back and forth between the kitchen and the living room before stopping close to me and asking in a somber tone, “How far do you live from Roseburg?”
On Oct 1., 10 people were killed in a mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, two hours south from the town I grew up in. Countless people’s lives are now changed forever.
Having no knowledge about what happened, I immediately picked up my phone, which I hadn’t looked at for hours. Even though no one I knew was killed, the shock of a place I am so familiar with going through such a devastating event left me speechless for a while. It was a time for me to reflect on the people that are now gone even though I don’t even know their names. Ten people woke up yesterday morning to go to their fourth day of class for the year and now they are gone. Their significant others, best friends and families are scarred forever. Countless others feel unsafe. I thought about how unfair it was that so many people have their lives torn apart for no reason at all. It was all taken from them in a single instant.
The shooting happened in Roseburg at Umpqua Community College, but it just as well could have happened in any of the other schools in Oregon. I immediately thought of my younger brother, who just started his first year of community college – I could have potentially lost him that day forever. I thought of my friends back home who I miss everyday – I could never have had the chance to talk to them again. It could have been any one of us.
Of course, people feel great sympathy for those who were affected by the shootings. Most of the time we feel like we can only offer words of sympathy such as “thoughts and prayers,” but, while thoughtful, these shootings continue to happen every few months and “thoughts and prayers” are not doing the job. We need a change.
Clearly the current policies are not working. I don’t think anyone is OK with the amount of shootings that happen every year, but we continue to do nothing because of the relatively small group of people that insist on having virtually no barriers between a person and gun ownership. Voters need to share their voice access to firearms and not have the issue dominated by a single viewpoint.
People will say,”don’t politicize this,” as I have heard after several shootings before this one. Anyone saying this is effectively saying your opinion is not welcome or it is invalid. Don’t listen to them. They are silencing your opinion without offering their own, which is saying that their voiceless view is somehow more valid than yours.
I am not asking you to side with me on strict gun control, but I am asking that you consider all the lives lost due to senseless shootings and think about all the loved ones that were affected. Look deep into the issue with your own research and consider new possibilities to make our country and communities safer.
I have never voted before, but this year I will vote primarily around the issue of gun control because I am tired of this issue playing second fiddle to other political issues. Events like this should inspire you to share your voice because these are reminders that we really need a change.
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