On Wednesday, September 28th, gunshots pierced the silence at the King Estate school campus in Oakland. Six people were killed, minutes before students were dismissed for the afternoon. Soon after, there were blaring headlines, impassioned outrage, and congressmen accusing other politicians of lax policymaking. There was enough fury to once again make Americans care about and invest in these tragic stories. In the US, twelve children on average die from gun violence each day. Just this summer, a deadly school shooting occurred at a public elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing nineteen children and two adults. Again, there were headlines, outrage, and accusations. Yet, the problem continues to persist. School shootings have become commonplace, seemingly intrinsic to American society. It has become the norm to ignore the policies in place that blatantly increase school shootings. Violence has become so ubiquitous that many unknowingly dismiss it as conventional.
We become numb to bloodshed over time.
This numbness is coined as desensitization. Violence all over the news makes it easy to succumb to desensitization to cope with the brutality. Debates about gun control and advocating for the status quo have been around for so long that this topic is now commonly brushed over and politicized in the media. Despite its horrific consequences and the rising death toll, gun violence is still a human problem with human solutions. The moment when a country dismisses gun violence as ordinary is when society has failed. Strict licensing and thorough background checks in Germany have significantly reduced the rate of mass shootings, demonstrating that gun violence is solvable. As residents of a shooting-prone society, we should strive to understand gun safety issues and laws concerning our community. Learning more about foreign policies and raising awareness in our own communities are crucial steps to reducing gun violence. Gun control may seem like an impossible issue, but every protest, every donation, every volunteer brings us one step closer to a peaceful nation.