Yesterday evening in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States suffered its most deadly mass shooting to date. Five hundred concert-goers were wounded, and over 58 were confirmed dead. Naturally, the country has taken to social media to express its condolences and opinions on the matter. Because of this, many people are under attack for not having the “correct” response to the issue. Updating your status to say “Praying for Las Vegas” is not enough in the eyes of many. However, it is difficult to decipher what is “enough” and what the correct way to respond to yet another senseless act of violence is.
Senior Carter Makice feels that that the United States does not take domestic terrorism as seriously as it should and that when reacting to incidents such as this, citizens should keep in mind that “the threat of Americans is much more significant than the threat of immigrants or Islamic extremists.”
Additionally, Makice believes that the way the United States approaches gun control and the way Americans feel about assault weapons in general contribute to the reason that mass shootings are more prevalent in the United States than in any other country.
“Part of it is legal restrictions, or lack thereof, on assault rifles and automatic weaponry, which really has no purpose outside of militant usage. [Americans] also have a sense of entitlement to bear arms, which is in our constitution, and I don’t think that right has been instilled as deeply in other countries,” Makice said. “It just seems really easy to me to not let civilians operate, or own, or touch assault weapons.”
Senior Elena Stalnaker believes that arguments against gun control are outdated. Stalnaker says, “The second amendment was made before guns were functional, and at the same time as and by the same people who approved the ⅗ Clause and believed women were property.”
On the other hand, junior Caleb Sipes believes the media edits coverage on shootings, therefore banning assault weapons would not fix this deadly epidemic plaguing our country.
“Shootings happen in Chicago all the time, [despite it] being a gun free zone. 59 people a month in Chicago die and you don’t hear about it. Then, when supposedly an legal AR-15 is used to kill a ton of people, it’s suddenly the worst thing ever,” according to Sipes.
