With the most recent shooting in South Carolina this month, there is a new video on the Internet that has taken all social-media networks by storm. The video is called “Demand a Plan” and it features various celebrities urging the public to demand a plan for better gun control. Everyone from Beyoncto Ellen DeGeneres pleads that we take a stand before a loved one ends up on a list of people who have had their life taken due to a mass shooting.
Celebrities aren’t the only ones pursuing a change. There are several organizations made up of more than 2.5 million government officials, moms, cops, teachers, survivors, gun owners and everyday Americans who have come together to make their own communities safer. Every Town is a movement ofAmericans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Gun violence touches every town in America. According to the Every Town website, there have been an estimated 126 school shootings since the December 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. How many times will this happen before we can get a hold on gun control and security in public areas?
Regardless of how strong the restrictions that are put in place by the government on gun control, a person who wants a gun badly enough will find a way to get one. It’s the same way with illegal drugs. Just because an item is illegal it doesn’t mean that it is not accessible.
An area of concern that needs more attention is mental-health facilities and programs. It needs to be viewed as a positive thing for a person to seek help for mental instabilities.
We need to banish as a whole the negative stigma that goes along with mental disorders and instead encourage those who are seeking help for their own issues. Maybe then we will begin to see a drop in the rate of mass shootings each year.
Maybe then we won’t have to fear seeing one of our own loved ones on the list of victims whose lives were taken by a gun.
Regardless of the various reasons why these shootings do still occur, movements such as Demand a Plan and Every Town are a great step toward the right direction — the direction of a safer future for generations to come.