Only in America

When I moved to this country in the mid 90’s from India, it was a great land of opportunity. I had my fair share with this opportunity to work hard to achieve success. There was a lot that the US had to offer to anyone migrating here, but the most important to me was that each human life mattered.

In the last decade, there have been a few incidents that have really shook my belief of that:?

1. Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting - Dec 2012. Still reeling from Columbine in ’99, the entire nation was in a state of shock and cried (including our sitting president). It was the 22 sweet children at school who, unknowing to them, lost their precious lives. From that moment, there has not been a day that goes by that my wife and I, as parents, don’t pray to god as we drop our kids at school that they would return back safe and we can hug them. I know of many parents who have also been doing that since then.?
2. Parkland High School Shooting - Feb 2018. Another unfortunate incident where we lost 14 innocent kids. The High Schoolers did their best to raise their voice and brought about few changes in gun laws in Florida but there was no broader impact or change across the country.
3. Robb Elementary School Shooting - May 2022. 19 innocent children have lost their precious lives because of a senseless act of an 18-year old with a gun. This really shook me and I am aghast at what is happening to this country. The terror that those children, teachers, their families, and the entire Uvalde community felt and experienced during the violence is unimaginable. My heart breaks every time I think about them.

Unfortunately we also lost school teachers, and administrators who died doing their job in these shootings. Most of them died protecting innocent children.

In our country, we allow mass destruction weapons to be purchased by a kid who can’t buy a drink, doesn’t have a driver’s license to drive, with no background check.?

This BBC article couple of days ago sums it up well:

• 1.5 million firearm deaths from 1968-2017, higher than any US soldiers died fighting war to protect this country since American War of Independence in 1775
• In 2020 alone 45,000 Americans died with a firearm. 43% increase since 2010
• The US is number one individual gun-owning country in the world 120.5 per 100 residents.
• A 2020 study shows the US represents a whopping 79% of the world's gun related deaths.
• Since Columbine in 1999 we had 12 mass shooting events bigger than that (3 in schools and colleges)
• We have 25 states who have laws that any citizen has right to carry a firearm without license or permit

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

As a comparison, look at few examples on what other developed nations have done when they had their first mass shootings:

- After a British gunman killed 16 people in 1987, the country banned semi automatic weapons. A similar ban was enacted with most handguns after a 1996 school shooting. It now has one of the lowest gun-related death rates in the developed world.

- In the aftermath of the Christchurch mass shooting where 51 people were killed, New Zealand enacted stricter rules on gun sales and ownership, which saw a ban on nearly all semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles as well as magazines and parts. The new gun law was passed by New Zealand’s parliament near-unanimously.

I now wonder where our country is going. This is something I would have never thought could happen here, as I expected each individual human life mattered and that this country would do everything in power to protect them.?

There seems to be no value to an individual human life, especially little sweet kids who have a lot of future ahead. There is a protest here and there, a lot of conversations in the media, few conversations by democracy leaders but in the end, nothing happens.?

If we do nothing, this will happen again and again. Children are being massacred in school, including recent mass shootings at churches, grocery stores.

Lastly this weekend is memorial day, a day of remembrance for those who served our country and died. They have paid the ultimate sacrifice to afford us freedom we all got to enjoy.?

Let us also remember the small children this week we lost and ensure it will not happen again.We can do better as a nation, our leaders can do better. We cannot keep quiet and do nothing. Let's use our voices as I am using mine.

PS. I have kids who are going to school and college. I have a beautiful wife who has been serving our local community for the past decade as a grade-school teacher to inspire a passion for math in children. These school mass shootings are so close to my heart, and not a day goes in my life where I pray to god to make sure I can see them at home everyday and hug them.