Gun Violence: There\u2019s Gotta Be A Solution<\/a>). This time, a gunman at a Baptist church outside of San Antonio. This time, the terrorist in question is Devin Patrick Kelley- twenty-six, white and American- grossly similar to sixty-four-year-old Stephen Paddock.<\/p>\nHere are the facts: Kelley walked into a church that he once regularly attended. He pulled out an assault rifle, and took out his mama (in-law) drama on her fellow churchgoers, wrongly expecting her to be there. He claimed the lives of twenty-six people and injured twenty others, being dubbed Texas\u2019 deadliest shooting in modern history. The victims ranged from ages one to seventy-seven. ONE year old. And many others were under the age of eighteen.<\/p>\n
An armed resident nearby heard the gunshots and ran to the scene, and is said to have shot him in the leg and torso as he was leaving the church, but his likely cause of death was a self-inflicted shot to the head. He was found dead in his car by authorities shortly after the attack.<\/p>\n
A lot about the gunman\u2019s past has been surfacing since the shooting occurred, begging the question as to how he got his hands on a gun — legally. For starters, he had a long record of violence, including domestic disputes with his wife and physical abuse of his stepson, as well as a charge of animal cruelty. This later resulted in his being discharged from the Air Force in 2014 for bad conduct, after serving time in both military prison and a New Mexico mental health facility which he escaped from in 2012. His Facebook page was threatening and violent, to say the least. Many people that knew him personally have claimed to feel uneasy around him.<\/p>\n
The Air Force stated that it mishandled the records of his domestic violence conviction and discharge to law enforcement and their criminal database. Had this information been shared properly, it could have prevented him from legally purchasing the weapons that he used in the attack. Kelley was denied the ability to receive a license to carry a gun in the state, however, just last year he passed the background check needed to buy the gun that is believed to have been used. The FBI has his phone and is working around an encryption to extract information from it.
\nA rumor was widely spread on social media that Kelley\u2019s attack was stemmed from an Antifa agenda. (Here\u2019s more information about the group if you need a rundown like I did: http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/08\/14\/us\/what-is-antifa-trnd\/index.html) This rumor has been dissolved. The attack is not believed to be racially, religiously, or politically motivated. The investigation points to personal issues with the gunman\u2019s mother-in-law as the sole motive.<\/p>\n
And of course, as I did a month ago when 58 people died and 546 were injured, I\u2019m asking again: When will enough really be enough in America? How can people still sit here and defend this terrorist\u2019s (and potential terrorists like him) right to own a gun when his past is riddled with reasons and warnings that suggest more potential for violence? How can people possibly turn to thoughts and prayers when the victims were literally praying themselves when they died? Yes, please pray, please send good vibes into the universe, but let\u2019s try taking action, too. We need change. We need better policy. We don\u2019t need the NRA in our lawmakers\u2019 ears and wallets any longer. Love your guns all you want, and if you are a safe, responsible owner, that\u2019s great, more power to you! But you know- I know- everyone knows this could have and should have been prevented.<\/p>\n
My previous article lists some solutions that I think could work, as well on overall opinion about how gun violence issues are handled in the US. I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I don\u2019t have a clear, in-depth understanding of the system as a whole and how it works. I don\u2019t know what changes are feasible, or what their consequences will be. I do know that our Constitution was written to be modified as necessary with a changing society, and the second amendment has failed to receive appropriate changes. I know that innocent people are dying. I know that something needs to change, and there is always a solution. It will be complicated, and it will need serious modification through time, but it will be better than (what seems like) the nothing that we have now. We are out of time to sit and watch this continue any longer.<\/p>\n
Learn about things that are actually happening. Research how things in our government work. Research your political candidates. Know who and what you\u2019re voting for. Hold them accountable. Call your lawmakers and representatives. I know it\u2019s easier said than done, and I would be a hypocrite if I didn\u2019t admit that I haven\u2019t done this myself yet, but I will start. Politics is tough, and boring sometimes, and really hard to understand, too- but it matters. It\u2019s more than a right or a privilege now; it\u2019s our duty as citizens to participate in government. It\u2019s our duty to care. We have this beautiful gift of democracy in our laps. LET\u2019S USE IT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY MARIAH SMITH Yet again, tragedy strikes the nation at the hands of a domestic monster and a gun. Last time I wrote about a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11284,11,55,1],"tags":[11381,11382,11281,10118,4161,103,290],"class_list":["post-35126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-independent_opinions","category-news","category-opinion","category-uncategorized","tag-church","tag-devin-patrick-kelly","tag-mariah-smith","tag-mass-shooting","tag-texas","tag-tiger-media-network","tag-tmn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35126"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35131,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35126\/revisions\/35131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}