The "Why" of the Gun Debate Brings More Questions, Few Answers

By: Marco Sanfilippo

There’s a debate that always comes up after mass shootings; a cycle that never seems to end. The question is a simple one, but it is not easy to answer: who do we blame? To make a statement about the issues on gun control, the March for Our Lives protest reportedly attracted 800,000 people to the events all around the country. The Mission Statement for the event is clear: “No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legalization to effectively address the gun violence issues that our rampant in our country.” But why go through all this trouble to organize an event this big? Because no one is doing enough to address it.

In the wake of the deadly school shooting at Majory Stoneman Douglass High School that tragically resulted in the deaths of 17 students and faculty members, Florida’s House of Representatives declined to debate on a bill that would ban assault rifles and ammunition with large magazines. Instead, they supported a bill that declared pornography a public health risk.

There weren’t any helpful moves from the Trump White House either. Shortly after the shooting, President Trump called for bringing more guns in schools by arming teachers with weapons. After, he resurged the debate on how violent media (in this case, video games) cause violence by releasing an out-of-context video montage of scenes from violent video games.

Some critics even went as far as to claim that the Parkland survivors were “crisis actors” paid by supporters of gun control. In other words, these are claims that the Parkland students are not survivors of a tragic shooting that could have been prevented, but merely pawns to further a cause. President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. liked a Tweet that supported these claims.

This debate has been going on-and-off again for years—but in the meantime, mass shootings keep happening—mass shootings that become the worst in the country, until the next one breaks that record. While there are many reasons as to why someone might commit such a heinous act, the weapons that makes it possible are still getting into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. And while most of our politicians are ignoring that fact, and blame everything else instead of  dangerous weapons that could be easily relegated, more people are going to get shot by another person, in another tragedy.