*UPDATING AND REPOSTING because
It’s August 4, 2019 and there were two more mass shootings within 24 hours of each other, just after another earlier this week. That’s three more shootings in just under a week. And those are the shootings that have been in the public eye. There were three other mass shootings between the Gilroy Garlic Festival and today. There have been eight more “deadly” mass shootings since the Virginia Beach shooting. There have been 108 mass shootings in the US since the Virginia Beach shooting. That’s 108 mass shootings in 66 days.
WHERE IS THE POLICY AND CHANGE?
On Friday, May 31, 2019 around 4:00, a long-time and current city employee entered the Virginia Beach Municipal Center campus with a deadly intention.
Immediately, our phones started pinging with live updates of the shooting, which was happening only 15 minutes away.
I go on Facebook and see friends publicly freaking out because their friends and family work at the municipal center, some in building 2.
Messages started coming in to my sister’s phone as her friends all over the country started checking in to make sure she was safe since she had just posted that she was visiting me. Shortly after, I started receiving messages from my entire team that I’m currently working with in San Francisco, checking on me.
Over the next several hours, the story was quickly escalated from our local news sources to national new sources. The New York Times. The Washington Post. NBC News. CNN.
It was the most deadly shooting since November.
By the time we went to bed, there were 12 confirmed deaths, plus the shooter, as well as four injured. One police officer was shot during a shootout with the assailant, but was protected by his bulletproof vest.
I see a heartbreaking message from a friend who was working in the ER at the hospital that the victims were taken to.
My thoughts and prayers go out to every single victim, their friends and their family. My heart hurts. I’ve cried reading most of the news articles and seeing posts of friends and family online who know the victims. I’m crying as I write this. One Facebook friend’s aunt was in the building and barricaded herself in the office. While being escorted out, she had to step over the bodies of her coworkers and friends. Who should ever have to witness that horror? Is this enough now?
I hate guns. I’ve never touched a gun. I will leave the room if someone takes one out around me. I’ve never liked them. BUT I generally keep my thoughts to myself because the last thing that I want to do is get into an argument with someone over gun control who doesn’t see eye to eye with me. It can quickly turn into a nasty conversation.
We have a right to bear arms, I understand that. You want to be able to protect you family. I get that. You want to be able to hunt. Okay. But why do we need access to semiautomatic weapons and military grade automatic assault rifles?
Here is a little-known story about my family – when I was five years old, my mom’s 17 year-old stepsister was shot and murdered in her home. SEVENTEEN. With her mother’s gun that the culprit found in the house. Her mother’s gun that she had, I can only assume, to protect her family. I think it’s safe to say that hearing these stories as a child and knowing what happened molded my views and I still stand by every feeling and opinion I have about guns, even though they may differ very significantly from even my friends and family.
With that – regardless of your overall feelings towards guns – when will this end? How many more mass shootings have to happen? What will it take? Does everyone have to experience it in their town first? Does their community have to go through this tragedy first? Do their neighbors and friends and family have to suffer first? Do you have to love it firsthand to take a stand?