No longer a privilege

My most profound political opinion to date was formed, not from any news coverage, but during a season six episode of Grey’s Anatomy I watched last weekend.

An angry widower shot down employees of Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital until he felt justice was served for his deceased wife, raising the topic of restrictions on firearms.

As I watched this fictitious character open fire left and right on people, I was struck with an overwhelming realization: who wouldn’t be for gun control?

Guns should not be as easily purchased at a store as a pair of shoes.

The man in the show, a fictional figure who represents many real-life cases, claims he simply purchased a gun at a “superstore,” enabling him to waltz through the hospital doors and kill whomever he wanted.

We live in Indiana. Many Hoosier hunting enthusiasts enjoy weekends killing deer.

Everyone enjoys their sports and passions, and that’s cool.

But this isn’t about pigeons, deer and geese anymore.

It hasn’t been about that since 1999 at Columbine High School, 2007 at Virginia Tech, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary or the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., or any of the other deadly mass shootings in the United States.

I don’t see why gun control isn’t at the forefront of immediate action in this country.

I’m tired of people retweeting pictures of crying family members to pay “honor” to those who lost their lives, relatives or friends in a massacre and then weeks later claiming gun control to be a violation of their rights as citizens.

Gun control is more than a topic of political debate and more than the right for someone to maintain their hobby.

For example, most IU students were bombarded with text messages, phone calls and voicemails Sunday morning claiming there was an armed person at large on campus.

Though we later learned the weapon was not in fact a gun, what if it had been?

Many citizens against gun control claim guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

If you’re lucky enough to not have been affected by gun violence in your life, imagine how those who have must feel.

It’s the same as it was in first grade: if one person abuses a privilege, it ruins it for everyone. And by now I think it more than evident that the privilege is lost.

As citizens of the country that claims to be about the rights of its people and justice for everyone, when did life become exempt?

In dozens of cases in the U.S., lives have been taken — some as early as age 6 — to maintain the right for a hobby.

That is more of a violation of rights than anything.

So far, the shootings haven’t been enough.

The innocent lives taken and the millions of people affected haven’t been enough to change the way people think about making weapons of mass destruction available to the average Joe.

The victims of the past mass shootings don’t deserve another Sandy Hook
Elementary, Luby’s Cafeteria or even fictional Seattle hospital shooting.

Before it can happen again, let’s all take up a new hobby, such as knitting, and initiate gun control.

­— cnmcelwa@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Claire McElwain on Twitter @clairemc_IDS.