“Monday morning, our campus awoke to the news of a tragedy unfolding.”
We began an editorial with these very words ten years ago after the then-deadliest mass shooting in American history — Virginia Tech. We are writing these same words again.
A nightmare in Las Vegas left 59 dead and more than 500 wounded in what is now the largest mass shooting in United States history.
In 2007, most of us were ending our years in elementary school. Since then, we’ve lived through this nightmare countless times. Sandy Hook Elementary School. Aurora. Charleston. Orlando. There are too many to list.
We have grown increasingly desensitized to the prospect of the next mass shooting. Unlike our parents, we can’t imagine a world where this cycle doesn’t exist. We’ve become disillusioned about any sort of constructive conversations about changing this status quo.
We know writing an editorial about this is not going to solve the problem of gun violence and mass shootings in this country. However, there is a troubling pattern that must be addressed.
After each national tragedy, the same sentiments and arguments blare on the news. The same horrified pieces run in our newspapers. The same shock permeates our student body. And then it all winds down, faster every time, because we’re growing numb to the trauma.
Everything is quiet until the next tragedy occurs and we’re thrown back into the same loop we’ve grown up in.
It’s been ten years since the Editorial Board wrote about Virginia Tech, and now the country is in the same situation because of our elected leaders have failed to act.
Ten years ago, we called for reducing the number of guns in our country, and now we are calling for it again. The United States had and has the highest concentration of guns per capita in the world.
We are trapped in this cycle when these guns keep falling into the hands of the wrong people.
What are we going to hear on the news next? How are we going to break the cycle?
