555 mass shootings in 511 days, what number is enough to take action?

Another mass shooting. A gunman opens fire. Innocent civilians killed.

Sandy Hook, Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas and now Sutherland Springs, Texas. The list of horror stories go on and the stories of victims lives seem endless.

Americans have become numb to the mass shooting epidemic in our country. The truth is, we don’t care to solve the era of gun violence until it directly affects us, which it very well could at any moment, especially considering the political divide and rise of tension in America today.

There have been 555 mass shootings in 511 days, according to a study by the New York Times. That’s at least one mass shooting a day– defined as a shooting involving four or more people injured or killed in a single event at the same time and location.

As complex as politicians attempt to make the issue, gun violence in America is an easy fix and Americans seem to agree on the solution. A person shouldn’t be able to fill out an application, pass a short gun safety course and be able to walk the streets with a concealed weapon.

The solution, supported by most Americans, it to require universal background checks, permit requirements for gun ownership and bans on the most dangerous kinds of weapons and ammunition.

In Australia, a law was passed in 1996 to ban the sale of semiautomatic weapons and a buyback program was implemented for weapons that had already been sold. Since then, there has not been a single mass shooting.

Pew Research Center reported that although “gun owners and non-owners have significant differences in views about gun policy, they agree in some areas. For example, large majorities of both groups favor restricting access to guns for individuals with mental illnesses and those who are on federal no-fly or watch lists. Gun owners themselves have diverse views on gun policy, driven in large part by party identification.”

The study also showed that most Americans, majority Republicans, believe owning a firearm is “tied to their sense of personal freedom.”

The second amendment gives us the right to keep and bear arms, but if it’s resulting in at least one mass shooting a day in America, an obvious solution is in sight. We cannot continue to be desensitized to mass shootings, our country needs concrete action and steps to implement universal background checks, restrictions on dangerous weapons and permit requirements for open carry.