The New Normal Means No Change

I honestly do not know what to write anymore. Should I write about the continued lack of proper gun control being implemented and the result is continuous mass shootings occurring on what is now appearing to be a daily basis? Should I write about the lack of freedom for women when it comes to the choices they make about their bodies? Should I write about the continued bias against people of color by people in power of authority? I truly don't know what to write anymore, because it seems like I keep repeating the same topics.

Today's topic: The Shooting at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. There were 3 fatalities while 5 others have fought or are still fighting for their lives and are in critical condition at local hospitals. In fact, I'm sure if you've checked other news sources like Channel 7, you'll see that some of the survivors of this shooting are also survivors of past shootings like Oxford High School and Sandy Hook, and God knows what else. And yet, all you'll see on Twitter and other social media apps are "Our prayers are with the victims", "I'm so sorry for your loss", etc, etc, etc. What we don't see are active initiatives to start implementing proper gun control. We'll have pro- and anti-gun control sides put up their own posts and defend their own sides, but we won't see any proper attempt to hear the other side out, to come to a compromise.

I know this is a sensitive topic because both sides have their own reasons for supporting the decisions the way they do. I personally, feel guns should be banned if you are not going to start controlling how these weapons reach the public. Because in the last decade, we have seen more mass shootings than in the 1900s. If you take a look at Wikipedia, (I know it's not the most reliable, but I'm using this here to make a point), there were a total of 304 shootings from the 1900s-1990s. Since 2000-2023, there have already been 411 shootings, (again this is from Wikipedia), and this century isn't over yet. But what are we doing to change this?

Even today, there is clearly no initiative by our elected officials to implement some form of gun control. Now, I would like to make this clear before moving forward, I am NOT saying to ban guns, what I am saying is to implement a system to ensure that those who purchase the weapons are held responsible for them, and they are in a proper state of mind to handle the responsibility of carrying a gun. It's easy to buy a gun and play with it, but it is much more difficult to be responsible about handling the gun yourself, as well as ensuring it stays out of reach from younger generations. Not just this, but we need to implement thorough and extensive background and psychological checks to ensure that the person who is buying the gun is not going to become a threat to the public in the near future. This can be avoided by having the customer go through continuous mental and psychological checks by attending therapy, or some form of mental health treatment on a regular basis, and having the therapist/professional sign off on whether the customer can handle being responsible for and carrying a gun. I've gone into detail on what kind of systems COULD be implemented to ensure proper gun control in my previous blog posts, so this is as much detail as I'll go into on this here.

The issue is, because of all the debating from both sides, as well as the effect of the NRA on many political figures, no one wants to make an attempt to establish proper gun control. Nobody is willing to compromise, and because of this lack of compromise, shootings will continue to increase, and more and more people will become affected, physically and mentally by this. Our children, as well as future generations, rather than learning how to behave in natural disaster situations, will continue to be drilled on how to handle active shooter situations as well. They will not feel safe, and they will be affected mentally, more than physically. Physical trauma can heal over time, but it is the mental trauma and scars that stay with a person. And this is what we are subjecting future generations of children to endure.

I refuse to let future generations endure what we are facing today. I urge everyone, to start having conversations, but be willing to listen to opposite sides as well. Learn to compromise for this situation especially. Reach out to your congressmen and senators, and urge them to fight for proper gun control. Because if we let this continue on, there will come a time when, because we refused to make any change and forced more mental trauma on current and future generations, future generations will be more damaged, become viable to launch their own dangerous situations, and at-risk of creating even more threats. What happened at Michigan State University, will continue to happen, and the survivors of these past shootings will be survivors of future shootings. And the emotional trauma that they are facing will affect them massively as they continue to live on.

If we do not change, we will damn the future for the next generation.