There is something about the desensitization to violence in North America that always bears comment, but the degree to which hate and pain are easier accepted than healing would be astounding if it wasn’t so normalized. It has gotten to the point where Bill O’Reilly, among other news anchors, have said “there will always be mass murder.”
Take a moment and step back from that. The acceptance of this as a normal occurrence, one we should not even try to change should be shocking, appalling and frightening. Especially since other countries do not have this problem.
I could stand back and go “it’s not my country, at least things are better here,” but I’m not that person; I cannot be that complacent about the loss of life. And really, things are getting worse here as the long gun registry gets picked apart by the Conservative party. It’s like they decided that things were getting too safe here and thought we should spice up our lives more by taking away some of those measures.
So what do we do? We take the lead from Australia. All stereotypes aside about Australia’s conception as a nation, they know what they’re doing when it comes to guns. Since the strict gun laws introduced in the late 90s, gun related homicides, gun related suicides and theft of guns has decreased astoundingly. And guess what? No mass shootings. Yes it took a Prime Minister willing to lose the next election to introduce those measures, but they have not since been repealed and they have been effective. If Australia, the place with one of the highest concentrations of natural things that can kill you can do without their guns, so can we.
A Raging Lesbian 