by Fio del Pielago
Gun violence is nothing new in 2019. However, we are only 2 months into 2019, and there have already been 56 incidents involving gunfire throughout the U.S. Compared to the news stories on shootings from last year, there is little to no coverage on the ones that have occurred this year, and if one is reported, it is just briefly mentioned.
These shootings are all over the U.S. and have left 96 dead and 167 people injured. That being said, the question of whether or not America has finally accepted that gun violence is a part of modern day culture, has been posed.
Last year, there were over 300 shootings, where more than 1,200 children alone were killed. When these horrific events occurred, they were found in headlines, and heavily covered by the news. However, there has been a low number of shootings that are actually being reported by news outlets recently.
Freshman Annie Connolly had heard of only 13 mass shooting this year, which makes up only 23% of the shootings this year. Connolly also voiced, “The people who commit these crimes are angered about something and decide to take it out on innocent people.”
The gun laws have been slightly altered, but not enough to prevent these incidents from happening. People are still able to obtain a gun, and as Connolly said, if they are not in the right mental state, they may be tempted to use the gun to relieve their anger towards one person, but end up killing others.
Not only have the numbers of mass shootings increased rapidly, but the U.S. has the second highest rates in suicides carried out by guns, right behind Brazil. With suicide rates spiking, especially among teens, the number may rise, and the U.S. may end up surpassing Brazil and become the leading country in gun suicides.
School shootings tend to appear in the news more than neighborhood shootings, but this year, there has still been a lack of news coverage on the incidents. Watching the news, neighborhood shootings are briefly mentioned with a time and where they took place, but it is not covered to the scale of several previous shootings.
Granted, some of the gun violence hasn’t killed on the scale of others, such as the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, but they still deserve to have coverage on them. America has grown so accustomed to everyday gun violence that it is considered normal.