Texas Shooting Massacre at Elementary School Mirrors Rogue American Gun Culture

The Robb Elementary School shooting in Ulvalde, Texas hits home for me. Being a native Texan from Houston, Texas and having a father who grew up in San Antonio, Texas, not far from this event’s violence, collectively serve as only the tip of the iceberg when analyzing this grim and heartbreaking event. Being a survivor of a severe autoimmune disease in 2003, at the age of 11, I can relate to this loss of innocence which the young survivors of this latest episode of gun violence in America is now coming to grips with. Coming to grips with mortality is not easy pill for any human being to swallow. But could this latest human disaster have been avoided?

Texas has historically been a conservative run state. The states contemporary leadership, dominated by controversial figures like Governor Gregg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz, has recently made a name for itself on the issue of abortion rights. Several other conservative states have followed Texas within this domain, eventually culminating in the historic overturning of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. However, the conservative leadership of Texas has also been notorious for its stubborn stance on gun rights and ownership. Gun rights have been ingrained within the DNA of American culture, dating back to this Country establishment. Whether it be in books, film, video games, or on television, our second amendment right has served as part of what makes us American. The most successful and expansive military on the planet has most certainly aided, and benefited from, the evolution of the American gunman over the course of numerous decades. However, American gun culture has proven to be self-destructive within the domestic realm. Within recent memory, the rise of gang culture and police brutality, especially during the second half of the twentieth century, made America an increasingly violent place to live in. Although crime will always be a thorn in the side of all human societies, the question we must ask ourselves is if we are doing our best to prevent lethal acts of violence. On April 20, 1999, the first widely publicized school mass shooting took place at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. Two students killed 13 people and injured 20 others. Sadly, at least 554 people have been killed in school shootings since the Columbine High massacre. At Robb Elementary School, 21 people, including 19 children, lost their lives in the shooting spree that took place on this particular Tuesday. Tuesday’s tragedy was one of the deadliest since 1999, and should force Americans to question what society we live in today and should hopefully make us wonder about the mental state of our younger generations. In a world of social media madness and financial insecurity after years of a menacing COVID-19 epidemic, young people are more psychologically challenged than ever before. However, violence in American culture is fed by a wide variety of entertainment industries, ranging from music to video technology. Within the songs, movies, and video games that permeate our youthful experiences, is a glorification of gun usage and other modes of violence as a means for addressing our issues. This has certainly been the case over the past three decades or so. So then what's the solution? I honestly have no clue. Pushing universal background checks seems like a logical response. However, it seems highly unlikely that traditionally conservative states, deep in cahoots with the likes of the National Rifle Association, would back off from their pro-gun commitments at this point. If they were going to, would't they have already done so? Perhaps unchecked gun usage will be one of the primary factors responsible for the collapse of this society. And if that does prove to be the case, I believe that we won’t be able to simply blame rogue politicians and billionaires for such a development. I believe that we, as Americans, would have to assume responsibility for allowing our divisions as citizens, and even our obsession with violence, to blind our collective desire for a safer and better society within which everyone can live successfully and freely.