As of Feb. 21, there have already been 34 mass shootings in 2018, 18 of which were school shootings, and people still don’t think we need gun control. Hundreds of citizens are now on a mission to finally change the U.S.’s corrupt system after the horrendous shooting in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. How many more people must die before President Donald Trump realizes that mental illness isn’t the problem, it’s really the overabundance of guns in this country?
The total gun deaths racked up to 464,033 between 1999 and 2013, and at least 15,549 people were killed by shootings in 2017 alone. The numbers have only increased. Thirty-one percent of mass shootings occur in the U.S. alone, and around 200 Americans go to the emergency room every day with gunshot wounds. If you can’t tell that there’s a serious issue with guns in the U.S., then what will it take? Firearms are already the 12th leading cause of all deaths, sources say. No one should fear waking up and going to school, thinking they might get shot at any moment. According to a survey, 57 percent of citizens claim mass shootings reflect more problems with mental stability and health problems, while 28 percent claimed it was a lack of gun control laws.
This topic has been swirling around the global discussion, but here are the facts: A study showed that only 22 percent of mass shooters in the database had a mental illness and 78 percent have no mental disorder but had a gun. If Trump takes long enough to stop pointing the finger at mental illness, maybe he’ll decide to start enacting gun control laws.
Compromising the public’s needs is Trump’s newest specialty, from planning to do better criminal reports for prospective gun owners, signing a memo to ban any device that can turn weapons to machine guns and raising the minimum age of gun owners. He even brought up the concept of “giving concealed guns to adept teachers with military or special training.” So he’ll fund for this number of extra guns and equipment, but won’t give any progress to removing the problem? He’ll do it all except what the public really needs, and that’s to have stricter gun control laws. If any progress will be made, I believe it’ll be mainly due to the brave survivors and citizens fighting for this right. If Trump genuinely means that he’ll enact change and take a stance on banning guns, then I’ll believe his intentions are to help the public.
Use your voice to help the cause move forward, not to keep preaching “thoughts and prayers” on your Facebook page. Thoughts don’t help anyone, action is what is needed.
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