Over 1,000 innocent lives taken; When will it stop?

Medical personnel and police officers standing at the scene of a shooting in Mandalay Bay. Photo from Public Domain.

Medical personnel and police officers standing at the scene of a shooting in Mandalay Bay. Photo from Public Domain.

Karly Ortiz, Commentary Reporter

Nine killed in a church, forty nine in a nightclub, twenty-six in an elementary school and fifty-eight at a country music festival. Different people in different places, but the outcome is the same. How long is it going to take before someone realizes there is a problem? Gun violence is a huge issue in modern day America, yet nothing has been solved.

This isn’t going to be fixed by politicians bickering back and forth. Something needs to change. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there is a mass shooting- meaning four or more people shot in just one accident, not including shooter- an average of every nine out of ten days.

More and more people are losing their lives due to an amendment written when gun violence wasn’t an issue. Frankly, it’s ridiculous that there hasn’t been much done about it. For example, states with higher rates of gun ownership have a much higher suicide count than states with a lower rate of gun ownership. So it’s not just murder.

However, some do argue that guns can be used for sport, such as hunting. What I don’t understand is why big semi-automatic guns are still legal, rather than minimizing legality to hunting rifles and basic handguns. A 50 caliber rifle should not be a necessity in any ‘sport’, therefore it shouldn’t be legal.

I’m pro-hunting, but no one needs an AK-47 to hunt.

— Bernie Sanders

People need to realize that there is a common factor in all these horrific mass shootings, and it’s something that the government has done almost nothing about. The process to purchase a gun (limited to hand guns and hunting rifles) should be more challenging and more thorough. How long is it going to take before someone fixes this?