The tragic incident of the Las Vegas Strip shooting, Oct. 1, left many students and faculty members in a state of despair. The shooting took place at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, where a 64-year-old man, Stephen Paddock, opened fire from a 32nd floor window of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The shooting resulted in 59 dead and more than 500 injured, making this the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
The reaction time was extremely quick. I was up late that night scrolling through my Twitter feed and suddenly the hashtag #LasVegasShooting started trending heavily.
The people’s reactions ranged from outrage to a call for a change of action in gun control while others proudly defended the Second Amendment. This recent and terribly shocking event has sparked a fire under the already hot topic of gun control.
Many people voiced their opposing opinions on social media with reckless language and insensitive tones. It seems that despite this tragedy, we still manage to make it about us. Everyone is taking this untimely event as encouragement to voice their opinions on the topic to the public.
I have seen endless threads and posts all going back and forth, both pro-gun control and anti-gun control. As much as these people mean well and truly believe that picking one of those sides and shouting it into the Internet will create world peace, they’re wrong.
The problem with such a controversial issue as this is it cannot simply be fixed with laws or a total gun ban. People do illegal things regardless of the law. Gun control won’t affect mass shootings like these.
The government makes laws and certain acts illegal for a reason and the majority of the American people support these laws. However, there are people in this country that disagree with some laws and won’t let any legal legislation stop them from committing certain crimes.
Paddock obviously had no legal concerns stopping him from committing this terrible act. If someone has the plan and the willpower to commit a crime, he or she will.
People like Paddock have no respect for laws or human life.
Constricting or tightening gun control will do nothing to stop deadly mass shootings like this one, because people have to choose everyday of their lives to do good.
