We see society today and what do we see most of the time? Gun violence. Gun theft. War and guns. Ban on guns. NRA fighting for the rights of the American people to own guns under the Second Amendment. We have school shootings, DAILY, now more than ever in the past. 

How many die because of gun violence? Well, there are many types of deaths due to guns. There is sui, homicide, unintentional deaths, shooting by law enforcement, and some unknown. 22,274 people die of shooting themselves. 12,830 die from homicides. 487 are unintentional. 496 die because of being shot by law enforcement. 295 are unknown by way there are shot. Looking at the statistics of deaths, homicides and suicides are the highest. But, we are going to focus on the most recent homicides. Homicides are commonly seen in racially segregated neighborhoods, at places of worship, and in our schools. 

Recently, on November 14, 2019, a 16 year old pulled out a handgun and shot at students in a Santa Clariff California, Saugus High School. He shot five students in total and killed two leaving three severely injured. He then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Now, in this month, there was another shooting in New Jersey at a Kosher Market. A man and a woman shot and killed five people and killed an officer that saw the two at a cemetery not far away from the next destination, the Kosher store. The case is being investigated as a hate crime, because one of the assailants is a black Hebrew Israelites group. The group is known to be anti-Semitic and publishing their harsh views online. 

Both are shootings, but what is different? One is at a place of learning for kids. To students it is normal to have a lock down because of a shooting. The New York Times interviewed one of the students, Tristen Aguirre, 17 years old, said “It’s the world now. The world is now weird.” Back then, guns were not taken to schools and used to shoot at innocent kids. The students even have felt it is apart of normal life now for them. One Adams student says, “Yes, I think it is a part of normal. Sometimes I find myself asking, “Which one?”. The fact I have to ask which one, means that it is definitely a part of normal life.” Should that really be the case, though? Should we really find ourselves listening to the news and thinking “oh there is another.”? This should not be a part of normal life. We should find these shootings shocking. But we do not. School should be a place of safety and not a place to commit murders. School is for learning, not for learning about how to protect ourselves from a shooter in the halls. 

Another difference, is the one in New Jersey, is a hate crime. Hate crimes have spiked. In 2014, the lowest the graph goes, 5,479 people died because of hate crimes. As of 2018, 7,120 people have because of hate crimes. Why is this? The questions I propose is: Why can we not all respect each other and their views? There is no solution in mind on how to fix this. What if we can find solutions? Would the world be better? What if we all respected each other? The questions are all of “what ifs”. There is no other way to ask this question. 

The country should not find shootings a part of daily life. Schools should not find it necessary to arm teachers to protect students from other students or adults from shootings. As a country, we need to find ways to make gun shootings and hate crimes not a normality. If we do so, all of us will be safer in the environments we are in.