No More

When is enough going to really be enough? I just do not know what to do anymore. I do not know how to keep fighting. I am at a total loss. This cannot continue to happen, yet here we are yet again.

There was another mass shooting in Texas yesterday. The count at this point is insurmountable. It is astronomical. And it just continues to happen. I could easily make a post on social media where I leave the state, date and place different with words surrounding it stating, "there was another mass shooting in America today". I'm sick to my stomach. I just don't get it. I don't understand.

I think this one has hit me harder because it happened at an elementary school. That is one of the few places kids should feel safe. School, their home and their grandparents' home. Those are supposed to be safe places. I see the signs at my kid's school everyday. They are big and they state, "this is a safe space". And I'm sure the school in Texas had a similar sign. Yet here we are. Children are dead. That makes me shudder. Teachers are dead. These people went to school without a care in the world yesterday, and now they are gone forever. It makes me want to cry. I am fighting back tears as I write this. It is so sad.

These actions could, and should, have been avoided. This should not keep happening. We are supposed to be one of the leaders of the world. But guns are such a big part of the US, and it is a real problem. Guns should not be this easy to get. There should be so many more rules than just being 18 years old and not having a criminal record. But nope, that is seemingly all it takes an America to get a weapon that can easily kill people. A psychopath can get one and take it into an elementary school and murder people. I know this sounds harsh, and it may trigger some, but that is what happened yesterday, and seems to happen daily in the US.

I have tried and tried to avoid politics and news for the last few months, and I have been relatively successful. It has really quelled my anxiety. But this story was unavoidable. I saw it everywhere. And I needed to see it. It kind of kicked my butt back into gear. We need gun reform in this country ASAP. I'm sick of waking up every single day and seeing another mass shooting. It is too easy to attain guns in the US. Guns are glorified in this country. People who shouldn't have that power can get it too easily now. We need to make changes. We need to do something. Things need to change and change now. I don't know how we go about that change, and it will be a long hard fight. But it is a fight we need to do, and I am more than willing to fight with like minded people.

I cannot imagine the pain and suffering the families in Uvalde are going through right now. The survivors are going to be traumatized forever. Those parents will never get to see their kids again. The loved ones of the teachers will never get to see them again. My kids both asked me about this yesterday and it was a conversation I have never, ever imagined having with a 10 year old and a 6 year old. I explained to them what happened and they were horrified. These people were no harm. They didn't pose a threat. They did not wake up ready to fight yesterday. They did not expect to lose their lives when they arrived at school. They were just going about their day and then tragedy struck. Again, it makes me both sick and sad. It is an atrocity.

The US is so far behind other countries on gun control. We need to take the lead from other places. We need reform immediately. We need to be better. We need to make sure our kids feel safe. We need to make sure our educators feel safe. We need to do something about guns. I know getting rid of them as a whole is impossible, but we can make it so much harder to get one. We can make it a thorough process. We can make it take months or years of background checks and tests and anything else that may make a mentally ill and deranged person unable to attain guns. I have never held a gun. I despise the notion of a gun. But I know we cannot rid ourselves of them. But we can, and should, make big changes. Please let there be swift action on gun reform. I cannot take these stories anymore. They hurt my soul. My heart breaks for every person that has lost loved ones to mindless gun violence. This is an epidemic in the US, and we have the power to stop it. We just need to take the steps.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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