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Another Tragedy: What Do We Do Now?

If you’re a millennial like me, your first memory of a mass shooting in America is likely April 20, 1999.

It was a Tuesday at Colorado’s Columbine High School when two students opened fire on their classmates, killing thirteen before themselves. I was eleven years old when this happened, two years from my freshman year of high school, and living in a home where guns were present, kept in a safe, and taken out only during hunting seasons. My father taught gun safety and education courses and knew how to handle a weapon. I never had the code to his safe.

Yesterday, the lives of 26 people were taken in a church three hours away from the office I’m currently sitting in. On October 1, a middle-aged man rained fire down on a country music concert in Las Vegas. After these events,I took a breath and some time to think about how many mornings I’ve woken up to a crime scene on the news, one that showed innocent people killed by gunfire.

Having watched this scene too many times, I struck by my lack of emotional response paired with an immediate need for information. Not because numbers make it more real, but because I couldn’t remember how many times I’d seen this kind of news and I was clearly too familiar to be this dry–eyed. I think most of us respond with either sadness or shock in moments like this, and I reverted to the latter, while hungering for facts.

Since 1982 there have been 93 mass shootings in America. The FBI defines a mass shooting as a single attack in a public place in which four or more victims were killed. Mother Jones now keeps an open-source databaseto track these events, though I desperately wish we didn’t need one.

Here’s what you need to know about the state of gun violence in America, and what you can do to make a real difference.

Talk is important, but so is action. Here’s how you can make a difference: 

Vote. Seriously, get to the ballot box and drop your vote in. Election day is tomorrow! But also do your research. Experts and the public agree on how to stop gun violence. Politicians don’t. We can’t wait for our elected leaders to get it right. Congress hasn’t passed a single piece of gun control legislation, beyond voting in 2013 to renew an expiring ban on plastic firearms, which could potentially bypass security checkpoints at airports and other locations. Want to go even further? Call your elected official and tell them that you want the basics, like universal background checks and a ban on gun sales to people with prior violent-crime convictions. 

Support organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety or The Brady Campaign for Gun Safety

If you have other ways to take action on this issue or suggested organizations who are addressing gun issues head-on, leave them in the comments. 

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