In a nation awash in guns, mass shootings seem inevitable
And so it happens again: Another sad weekend with news of two mass shootings in two days with 10 people killed and several others injured in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store and another mass shooting in a California church (“Parishioners subdue gunman in fatal Southern California church attack,” May 16). These horrific, yet all too predictable, incidents keep occurring with mind-numbing regularity, with the senseless loss of innocent lives, families shattered, communities grieving and people grappling with the tragedy and asking: Why? Why here? Why now? For what reason?
The survivors and family members of the victims are left battling an overwhelming sense of grief and anger, trying to comprehend this tragedy and continue with their lives after their devastating loss.
Sadly, despite repeated promises from our leaders to stop this carnage, it keeps happening again and again and again. The inescapable fact is that our country is awash in guns, and any person with a real or imagined cause for anger and revenge can easily obtain a firearm and inflict deadly harm with ease. The staunch supporters of the Second Amendment have prevented even reasonable measures for gun safety to be enforced, and the likelihood that these measures will ever be passed is slim to none, despite the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, to name just two.
The United States has the dubious distinction of having among the highest gun violence and deaths in the world, and is likely to maintain its position forever. Sadly, all we can do is to grieve with the families of the victims of gun violence, knowing with certainty that such senseless killings will recur with terrifying regularity.
The only way to prevent these tragedies from happening is for all like-minded citizens to let their elected representatives know that this state of affairs cannot — and must not — be allowed to threaten our lives and our right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness enshrined in the Constitution of the United States. May all the souls who have perished in such mass shootings rest in eternal peace.
— Vijay Abhyankar, Bel Air