Six people have been pronounced dead from the Kalamazoo, Michigan shooting, which is the forty-second mass shooting this year. We have become accustomed to these devastating and almost cyclical occurrences. Our desensitization to mass gun violence has plagued us with a lack of urgency to find a solution to this widespread bloodshed. Conservatives and Christians have consistently presented their prayers as a resolution, but it’s obvious that these after-the-fact ideas aren’t quite getting the job done. Why do they think that basically saying, “I hope this doesn’t happen again,” is going to prevent gun violence? Am I wrong to say that there is more we can do than hope and pray to ensure we diminish mass shooting rates?
One solution I present is to nip the problem at the bud: the male gender role. From birth, we teach boys to retain their emotions and feelings, building stress within them. Research conducted by the American Psychological Association discovered that masculine gender role stress accounts for a significant portion of aggression and violence amongst males. A 2014 TIME Magazine article reported that, on average, a whopping 98% of mass shootings are committed by males. This violence in males (that isn’t present in females) is obviously directly related to the implementation of the male gender role. By forcing boys to withhold emotions, we are turning them into emotional time bombs which have recently been exploding into mass shooting. If we want to take a step in the right direction in all facets, we need to stop enforcing gender roles.
My second solution is the obvious one: strengthen gun control. Whether it be more intensive background checks or restrictions of selling, we have to begin to do something differently. This point only reinforces the importance of electing a democratic president in November. Bernie or Hillary will make progress to snap the normalcy of violence while a Republican president will perpetuate it.
As Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” If we continue to do the same thing about gun violence over and over again, we will get the same result: mass shootings. Let’s take a stand and do something to prevent hundreds and thousands of people from being shot to death. While prayers are nice gestures, we have to physically and literally take action. If we, as Americans, decide to sit around twiddling our thumbs and hoping for things to get better… well… pray for us.
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