Ancilliary 10: Mass Shootings in Colorado
My WP4 is focused on mass shootings and gun violence in my home state of Colorado. Colorado has experienced an especially high amount of shootings. One of the largest school shootings happened at Columbine High School, another occurred at an Aurora movie theater, and just recently two big shootings happened in Boulder and Aurora. These shootings have occurred over the span of over two decades, and it seems like nothing is being done to prevent them from happening again. So many people in Colorado are affected by this and it is so scary to have the threat of something similar occurring in the future.
I remember two years ago, on the anniversary of the Columbine shooting, all schools in my district received a gun threat from a mentally-ill woman. Eventually, the school was canceled for the day, but we all were fearful of something happening. Students are taught how to respond to gun threats, how to hide from a shooter and we practice what to do in a lockdown drill, yet no one is addressing the larger issue of how to stop shootings from happening. This issue is not specific to Colorado by any means and so many other states have been touched by gun violence and mass shootings for years.
There is a common denominator in all of the perpetrators of these mass shootings: none of them should have had access to guns. Whether the shooters are teenagers or mentally ill, the problem exists in the fact that these people were given access to deadly weapons in the first place. Instead of working on how to react to shootings, we should think about how to prevent them from happening in the first place.
It’s hard to say why exactly Colorado has experienced so many shootings, but one thing that intensifies the problem is the lack of action from state representatives. Many people in the rural areas of Colorado are adamant about protecting their gun rights and for a while, one of our state senators was very conservative and unwilling to make changes related to gun control. Additionally, one of our congressional representatives is famous for being a gun-rights activist. These people in positions of power have chosen to value their political agendas over the safety of Coloradans, and it has been shown to put our lives at risk.
Some argue that by focusing on the mental health of potential perpetrators, we can prevent future shootings, but I believe that is not a plausible solution and gun control will prove to be more effective. According to ADL, gun control can include background checks and assault rifle bans. Background checks could potentially reduce the number of people with mental illnesses from being able to own guns and potentially put others in danger. Many argue that assault rifles should not be readily available due to their extreme capabilities. There is no quick fix to the problem, but without stricter gun laws, mass shootings will continue to occur in Colorado, among other places.
