By Evelyn Perez Garnica
As a country that claims to have its citizens’ best interests as its priority, it’s regretful that many individuals have died due to gun attacks. Many individuals argue that by having gun control laws, the government violates their second amendment right—even though the right to bear arms is clearly costing the lives of others. The government should, however, create gun control laws because they are required to protect their citizens.
The Colorado Springs shooting involved a few people injured and resulted in five deaths. The individuals who suffered and didn’t survive this tragic event were Raymond Green Vance (he/him), Kelly Loving (she/her), Daniel Aston (he/him), Derrick Rump (he/him), and Ashley Paugh (she/her).
This event would have been worse if it weren’t for Richard Fierro, a former U.S army veteran, who was luckily able to subdue the attacker and repeatedly beat him while another civilian took hold of the firearm.
The shooting in Colorado was classified as a hate crime committed by Anderson Lee Aldrich who identifies by they/them pronouns. In most cases, the assailant is not part of the community of individuals who are targeted in the hate crime, but in this particular case, Aldrich was part of the LGBTQ community.
Questions are unanswered in regards to why they did it, but since the crime was classified as a hate crime, I assume that Aldrich might have been projecting their own rejections they faced in life based on their gender identification.
As a result of all the shootings that take place in the country, you would naturally think the country would have passed legislation that offers more gun control, but it did not. I find it outrageous that people feel the need to own a firearm to protect themselves when we have witnessed, time after time, that owning guns can cause more danger for both outside parties and inside parties of the family.
In order to create a safer environment, it is important to have gun control laws, especially since most attacks by a firearm have recently been either school shootings or hate crimes. The New York Times reported that there have been at least 606 mass shootings in the country alone this year. This goes to show that protecting the right to bear arms has caused fear and death to individuals of all ages, and needs to be prevented.
Unfortunately, the Colorado Spring shooting is one of many on the list. It is hard to even keep up with all the shootings that occur in the country, which goes hand in hand with the feeling of normality that it has created for future generations.
When hearing of a shooting nowadays, one’s emotions do go out to the victims, but unfortunately, it is no longer a big shock. It is playing with our ability to empathize. This is a larger problem that will result in more shootings, and more numbness in the response of the generation growing up with it.
