Shut Up About Shootings

When the Sandy Hook shooting happened in 2012, it was like 9/11 all over again. Everyone was either scared, confused, sad, angry or all of the above. 26 people died that day, and less than half of them were children. Friends, families, bystanders, everybody mourned for the dead. And after the mourning they started theorizing why the shooter (who shall/should forever remain nameless, I’ll explain later) did what he did. People started pointing fingers at the government, the weapon used, the school security, the people who bullied the shooter into doing this, and yet all the while they ignore what actually happened. Somebody’s child was shot in cold blood. That was a mother’s baby. That was someone who’s childhood was cut short in a matter of minutes. That pisses me off as much as the next guy…and that’s exactly what the shooter wanted.

What’s the common motive for these shootings? Revenge? No. If it was revenge, they wouldn’t go after innocent people, especially children who weren’t even born yet when the shooter was their age. In actually, the reason why these shootings keep happening is because the shooter sees nothing left to live for in this life. So, instead of jumping off a bridge like a normal person with suicidal tendencies, they decide to go out in a blaze of glory. In doing so, they make everyone share their pain and I do mean EVERYONE! Once the shooting’s over and the shooter is either apprehended or dead, everyone feels exactly how he wants them to feel: hurt. And let me tell you from personal experience; being hurt on an emotional level is a million times worse than being hurt on a physical level.

So what should we do? Ban guns? Yeah, let’s abolish the 2nd Amendment in the Constitution. We shouldn’t have the right to protect ourselves because we as humans are too dangerous with weapons. Despite the fact that we’ve hunted with weapons for over 200,000 years and survived this long because of it. No, the answer isn’t banning guns. In order to stop these shootings entirely, we need to stop talking about them. We can still mourn and pay respect for the lives lost, but don’t address the shooter by name and don’t share pictures of his face. In doing so, you’re making the problem worse than it already is. The shooter and his motives are not to be the main topic when discussing shootings, the victims and their families should be. So please, if you care about the safety of our children and the people of this country as a whole; if you really want to see a day where these tragedies cease to happen, do us all a favor: Shut Up About Shootings.