Why we need to talk about America's gun culture.
Just short of three weeks ago, I finished my spring semester at school. I was so excited to finally catch a break from the heavy workload I had taken on and I counted down the days until I could move back home and be with my family for the summer. I'm lucky to be able to look forward to something like this -- something so rewarding, sweet, and blissful.
Amongst all my studying and preparing for presentations, I'd slightly lost touch with the outer world; I noticed I hadn't watched the news in a few weeks, and I wasn't checking CNN like I usually did. I hadn't checked Facebook (I know...not the best source) and I didn't really know what was going on outside of my college campus, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.
On April 30th, I came back from class and saw that a friend of mine had posted to Facebook that he was "not hurt and was in a safe place." Unbeknownst to me, he was posting this to relieve his friends and family members after news broke out about a shooting at University North Carolina at Charlotte. Like most of my reactions to this news, I was utterly disgusted, and heartbroken, but not surprised.
A month later, news broke of the mass shooting in Virginia Beach, a place I'd traveled to dozens of times as a child and where a few old friends of mine still lived. I grew angrier.
So far in 2019, 179 people have been killed and 616 wounded in 161 mass shootings.
This past week, I've been on vacation with my boyfriend to celebrate him getting his master's while also celebrating a successful semester myself. Never have I ever felt so lucky to be able to travel and celebrate something with someone I love dearly. But I was also very scared to travel, for the same reasons most people are nowadays. Before we left, I felt a pit in my stomach, and something was telling me not to go. But because everything was already paid for and since we saved up so much money for this trip, I ignored that feeling and went anyway.
The other evening, we were lying in bed watching Jaws when suddenly, we heard these irregular, loud bellowing noises coming from outside. They echoed heavily through the courtyards of our resort, across the trees and over the water of the beach. My first thought: gunshots.
After pausing for about 30 seconds, we both immediately jolted out of bed and ran to the balcony to see what was going on. Below us, people were running frantically across the courtyard. As I looked around, I noticed a handful of other guests poking their heads off their balconies to gain some understanding as to what was happening. All we could hear were loud crashes and booms, but we couldn't see anything. That pit in my stomach returned and I was terrified.
It wasn't until about five minutes later that Tyler walked out of our door and across the hallway to try to see through the window in the hallway that overlooked the opposing side of the hotel. He said:
"Gill, they're just fireworks!"
Let me first tell you, they did not sound like fireworks. They sounded as loud as a series of small bombs. While I was relieved and so very goddamn grateful to hear that, the pit in my stomach remained and my mind wouldn't stop racing. I kept telling myself, "What if they were gunshots? What would we do? We're foreigners and don't know anybody here, we have nothing to protect ourselves." The "what ifs" couldn't escape my brain.
While my main concern was losing my life, I felt more preoccupied that I hadn't contributed enough to raising awareness about gun violence. Each time I hear about a mass shooting, I feel a compulsion to love harder and speak louder. I feel this building, endless responsibility to do something; to say something. I feel responsible to open up this conversation more often and contribute my own thoughts in hopes of comforting and teaching others. We, as a nation, need to help each other through this so-called "gun culture." While gun control legislation has become inevitably tricky, we still have each other, and we need to embrace that.
I hope that opening up this conversation, as morbid and disturbing as it can be, urges people to think harder about where they stand in regard to gun control. We can't ignore it because it's disturbing. It has become interwoven in our everyday lives; it is our reality. Our loved ones are being killed as if it were a sport; a competition; a game. People are falling victim to something that at one point, wasn't nearly as prominent as it is this present day. Ask your neighbor what they think about it, ask you aunt, ask your professors and ask your boss. Share personal stories and let others in on your own experiences and fears. Sharing how we feel about gun control might propel others to challenge their own opinions. We can't hate the people who don't understand why we need it, but rather, we need to enlighten them.
There's no harm in talking about it, but there's ample in not talking about it.
One of my earliest memories of learning about gun violence was during the Connecticut mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. I was 13 years old. It was the middle of the day when it happened; I was in school, and the teachers wouldn't let us use the computers. My parents were panicked and every parent and teacher that surrounded me carried the burden of fear they never once thought they'd experience. Nobody thought it could happen so close to home until this day.
This incident on vacation reminded me of something similar that happened about four years ago. I was at Sailfest in Connecticut one summer with some friends and we were walking through crowds of people. All of a sudden, I heard a very heavy, loud boom and everyone froze before chaotically scrambling in different directions. A few short seconds later, we learned it was a very loud toy gun. Though it was unanticipated, I was 16 years old and even for that split second, I was afraid for my life.
In 2016, a very talented singer named Christina Grimmie was shot and killed after her performance in Orlando, Florida. She was 22 years old. And then again in 2016, a man opened fire at a nightclub in Orlando. In 2017, 59 people were killed at a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hundreds of mass shootings have followed since, and to me, that is blatantly gruesome and agonizing.
Musicians, bands, people in the film industry and advocates alike have unapologetically expressed their concern regarding gun violence in today's society. The 1975's song "I Like America & America Likes Me" is a brilliant example of how people from all around the world are questioning the chronic state of America. The illustrious lyrics read:
I'm scared of dying It's fine Oh, what's a fiver? Being young in the city Belief and saying something
According to an article on Vox.com, at least 2,908 people have been killed and 11,088 people have been wounded in mass shootings across the United States of America.
(This is not including deaths by homicide or suicide).
I challenge you to start the conversation, build the conversation, and move the conversation, so we don't have to have the conversation.
With love (always),
Gill
Resources:
For more statistics, visit this article published by www.vox.com.
Here are some links to help you learn how you can prevent gun violence, or protect yourself in the case that it occurs near you:
https://www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-america-sandy-hook-gun-violence
https://www.hrc.org/resources/gun-violence-prevention
https://www.bradyunited.org/issue/types-of-gun-violence
https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence
https://www.ricagv.org/gun-violence-resources/
https://www.csgv.org
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/opinions/gun-control-that-works/?utm_term=.54140b627d25
https://www.thelily.com/how-to-protect-yourself-during-a-mass-shooting/
References:
https://www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-america-sandy-hook-gun-violence
https://www.nme.com/news/music/1975-release-new-lyric-video-like-america-america-likes-2435125