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By Ranen Miao
Guest Writer I could easily reduce this article to a death toll, the number of people injured, and the location: 59 people dead and 527 people injured in Las Vegas. But let me show you the full picture, which is beyond any statistic. Gunshots. Screams. Blood. Panicked people, fleeing from the sounds of death. Sirens ringing in the distance. This is what a mass shooting looks like. I am tired of hearing statistics like 26 murdered in Newtown Elementary in 2012, thirteen killed at Columbine in 1999, or 49 massacred at the Pulse Night Club in 2016. We hear these statistics far too often, yet our representatives never do anything to change it. It has been less than a year since the last worst mass shooting in American history. After Pulse in Florida, we grieved, we sent out our thoughts and our prayers, and we told ourselves this can never happen again. Since then, nothing has changed. There are no universal background checks. The last time they were brought up in Congress was in 2016, when two bills were brought forth after the Pulse nightclub shooting, one by Republican Senator Grassley. It failed. The other was proposed by Democratic Senators Booker and Schumer. It also failed. There is no ban on assault weapons, designed to massacre groups of people, not to hunt animals or defend your family. The Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2013, proposed by Senator Feinstein after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting and the most recent attempt to do so, failed in the Senate, 40-60. Today, even the people on the terrorist watch list who are deemed a threat by the federal government, are granted access to guns. In 2016, Republican Senator Cornyn’s bill to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons, failed in the Senate. A similar bill, proposed by Democratic Senator Feinstein, preventing people on the terror watch list from buying guns--say it with me now--failed. Time and time again, opinion polls show that a majority of Americans want change, yet that change never seems to manifest itself. We need to stand up for what we believe in, call our legislators (and critical legislators from other states too), and prove that our voices matter. In the status quo, only the loudest, most radical voices are being heard. It is our job to bring back sensibility and moderation to our politics. This is not partisan: this is common sense. We don’t need to be Democratic or Republican to think that mass shootings are bad, and that something has to be done. We just need to be human. Sign up for advocacy groups and protests. Donate to and join organizations like the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Research about why mass shootings happen, and call your congresspeople (Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, and Representative Leonard Lance) to advocate for these policies, everything from banning assault weapons and bump stocks to implementing background checks against criminals, the mentally ill, and terrorists. Never forget that your voice can make a difference, and keep on fighting for a better, safer future. In the words of comedian Trevor Noah, even though the Las Vegas shooting was deemed the worst in American history, “every shooting is the worst for someone.” Let us honor those who lost their lives in senseless tragedies in the past. Let us speak up and make change in our country and our community. Most importantly, let us not forget that this is not normal.
2 Comments
Shiam Kannan
11/5/2017 07:35:49 pm
When you talk about "assault weapons," what exactly do you mean? "Assault weapon" is a political term that is used as a talking point against guns that look scary and military-like, but actually are no more harmful than a typical hunting rifle. If you are referring to fully-automatic machine guns, those are already banned. If you are referring to semi-automatic rifles, there are more than 5 million of them in civilian hands. They are among the most commonly used type of rifle, due to their versatility: they are used in everything from hunting to target shooting to self-defense. The Assault Weapons Ban made the AR-15 illegal because it looks like a military M16. However, the Springfield M1, which is also a semiautomatic rifle, stayed legal. The difference? The AR-15 looks scary and modern and military, but the Springfield looks like grandpa's hunting rifle. If you compare the two, the Springfield happens to be more powerful and with a larger round. However, it isn't banned, because it doesn't look military-style. This is why the "Assault Weapons" ban is not a good idea: it has no basis in fact. Semi auto rifles were involved in less than 400 gun murders last year. The vast majority of semiauto rifle owners aren't killers; they're law abiding citizens. And your claim to ban bump stocks is addressed in my article: you can bump-fire a semi automatic rifle using your belt loop. You don't need a separate stock to do it.
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Ranen Miao
11/5/2017 09:30:08 pm
An assault weapon was defined before by the Assault Weapons Ban you reference. I would advocate for a similar policy that bans semiautomatic weapons, and which creates a buyback program to take semiautomatic weapons off the streets. The definition of an assault weapon should also be changed from the 1994 law to be any firearm with the ability to accept a detachable magazine, closing a loophole that harmed the efficacy of the old law. It would also revoke the exemptions for the hunting rifles you spoke about that were so dangerous.
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