You’ve probably already forgotten about the Greenville shooting by now
On Oct. 26, a gunman opened fire at a Halloween party in Greenville, Texas killing two people and injuring another 14. A couple days after the shooting took place, a vigil was held for the two individuals who lost their lives during the shooting. The vigil was then interrupted by gunshots. Thankfully, no one was injured or killed and only vehicles were damaged by the gunfire.
In an event that was supposed to be for mourning and remembering the loss of innocent individuals unfairly taken by a gunman, panic and fear set in once again when these gunshots were fired off.
This only further begs the question, is nowhere safe anymore?
Shootings are so commonplace in America now that it could be a struggle remembering all of the ones that took place over the course of one year. Just this year there have been shootings at schools, grocery stores, bars and now something as innocent as a Halloween party and the vigil that followed it.
Hearing about so many shootings occurring in what seems like all of the time, they start to lose the shock value that should always be there when ramblings of a shooting occur. Shootings have almost basically become a trend now because they are so normalized in today’s society. To put it frankly, it is no longer a surprise when one happens because there are so many that occur in a month or a year that they all start to blend together in once tragic and horrifying blur.
Another issue that lays within each shooting occurrence is how quickly each one leaves the new cycle to make room for coverage of the next one that always inevitably occurs and usually not very long after, either. It seems that a shooting will only get a few days of coverage in the news cycle before it eventually gets swept under the rug.
This also leads to the most important question of all: What will have to happen or who will have to die for government officials to realize that enough is enough and something finally needs to be done?
There is already a fear looming in place in possibly finding out what that exactly might be, but something must really be done to prevent shootings happening so freely and so often.
It is unfortunate that an argument still needs to be brought up, especially after so many shootings that have occurred, but it is still an ever important issue that needs to be talked about. If it is not still talked about, there is the risk that nothing will be done about it and it will keep going on.
People should be able to go to the grocery store, to the movie theater, to school or to a Halloween party without fear of being gunned down.
All of these things are meant to bring people together especially when in celebration of a holiday, but the underlying threat and fear of a shooting taking place is enough to wean off anyone from wanting to do extremely simple things like those mentioned above.
We as a society cannot afford to ignore the issue at hand when it comes to shootings any longer, especially when it all feels so close to home.
Featured Illustration: Jeselle Farias
In Portland, Oregon , where I live, on 2019 Halloween Night we had a family shooting where the kids died trick n’ treatin’ and the parents, ‘the guardians’ never got a scratch. I moved here from Denton in 1987, got a law degree, and stuck around.