Gun violence has been an out-of-control problem in the last few decades, with frequent occurrences and many lives ruined because of it. This is not something that can continue to happen, so we need to come together and find a solution to fix this problem in the long run.
On Aug. 30, 2024, an article was released stating that an officer was killed and two more were injured in a targeted shooting that took place in Dallas, Texas. The suspect, Corey Cobb-Bey, went up to Officer Darron Burks and talked with him for a little bit before pulling out a gun and shooting the officer, leaving him dead. There was no warning or escalation in the interaction that could have let the officer know that his life was in danger, leaving no chance for him to prevent the tragedy. Burks was known as a very noble man who was “committed to serving others” and had a “dedication to making a positive impact on the lives of those around him”. All of this is to say that this pointless act of violence ended a very promising life that has already proved to have a great impact on the world. Officer Burks was targeted solely based on the uniform that he wears and what it represents. People tend to generalize the actions of some police to the actions of all and this creates a false stereotype that causes negative opinions towards police.
Another instance of gun violence was recently where a teen opened fire at a high school in Winder, Ga. Reports say that the student made several threats to shoot up the school, investigators looked into it but ultimately did nothing in terms of taking action. They couldn’t take any action in the way of making an arrest because there was not enough evidence and a lack of consistency in the evidence that they did find. The shooting resulted in four people dead and 9 more were injured. Two of the deceased were students and the other two were teachers. This is another example where obvious signs of suspicion were shown, yet ultimately the police did nothing and it led to a very deadly outcome. In this instance four very promising lives were lost including two young students and two very good teachers. This goes to show that the police need to take high priority to any suspicious actions or signs shown from students. However more importantly parents need to keep a closer eye on their children and make sure that they cannot have access to any dangerous weapons like firearms. This attack could have very easily been avoided had the police taken the signs more seriously and the parents did a better job keeping their kid away from dangerous weapons. Now because of this negligence four lives were lost and nine more people were injured leading to the grief of multiple families and the fear of many other families losing a loved one.
Now the question of “what can we do to prevent something like this from happening again” arises. While the answer may not be very straightforward, it is not very complicated either. People focus so much more on restricting law abiding citizens from purchasing certain guns than actually focusing their efforts on preventing criminals from getting their hands on all guns. It needs to be said that this issue is more so a problem with people than it is a problem with guns. Meaning that the solution to this problem will come more from helping the people who need it rather than cracking down on gun laws and making it more difficult for law abiding citizens to purchase guns. For parents it is important to make sure that your child does not have any access to firearms and for lawmakers it is important to focus more effort on preventing certain people from having any guns than preventing all people from having certain guns.