The Heavy Discussion

     We had two wonderful speakers in class on October 15^th, for some pretty heavy and interesting discussions. The first discussion was on victims of assault and while I thought I was pretty knowledgeable on the subject matter, I learned a great deal of information. As a victim of assault myself, it wasn’t until something happened to me that I started realizing how many other women were victims of some kind assault in their lives. The number is unreal, yet the crime continues to happen and people continue to blame the victims. Victims are even blaming themselves. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, every 9 seconds a woman is assaulted in the U.S. 

So what is this cycle and why is it ok for a victim to have endured such pain and get told it was their fault?

I wish I knew the answer.

     I understood from the discussion that many factors contribute to blaming the victim from guilt and fear and power from the abuser that he/she think they are entitled to have. And it does make sense. The abuser wants control and power and in turn, the intentional harmful act makes the victim feel guilty as if they done something wrong to deserve it or fearful of getting help because of the risks that are there. Risks can include not being believed, the fear of the abuser coming after the victim for seeking help, severing financial or familial ties etc.

     I personally hate how majority of assault cases are overlooked and how a large number of them occur from people victims already know. According to the Victims of Crime website, 67.8% of women and 45% of males are assaulted by someone they know. 

     Majority of the time victims don’t get the proper healing they need because of the way they are treated from seeking help. Because of this, they walk around for years with feelings of pain, anger and resentment. From personal experience I know exactly how it feels to be assaulted, doubted and then have your entire character questioned by family members at the expense of the abuser who should have been held accountable.  The abuser received a green light go pass that said, “you did nothing wrong.” While it took time and I did eventually get the healing I needed only by the Grace of God and my savior Jesus Christ, my heart goes out to those who haven’t.

     Assault is serious and should never be taken lightly no matter the situation. No one deserves to be abused in any way and once that abuse happens, it is ALWAYS the abusers fault. End of story.

     On another note, the LGBTQ community certainly has a history although the name is fairly new. What I learned from the speaker was how that community was portrayed in the media some decades ago and I must admit…I was completely shocked at what I learned. 

     He shared with us many shows, actors and actresses starting in the 1950’s that portrayed someone in the LGBTQ community and how people were reacting to it. We looked at how in 1954, there was the first gay character on television. From there, we examined many other shows that laughed at people who were gay and on the show, the Jeffersons was where the first black transgender women was portrayed. Some shows that addressed gay characters in some way were Three’s Company, Archie, Mash, Cheers, Golden Girls etc.

     It was one program on CBS in 1967 called, The Homosexuals that talked about homosexuality as if were a plague. The tone was very, “scary movie” like and the fact it was called, THE Homosexuals really says it all.

     Nowadays, the LGBTQ community is more in television shows then at any other time. While it is still a controversial topic, as far as if homosexuality and the rest of the community should be accepted, it has certainly become more prevalent in media. Also not to mention the fact same-sex marriage is now legal in all states as of June 26, 2015 says a lot as far as the community being accepted. 

So...What about these gun laws though?

So let’s talk about gun control and the lack thereof in America.

On Thursday October 1, another shooting rampage took place at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. This tragedy has left 10 people dead, 20 wounded and is the 295^th mass shooting in 2015 according to shootingtracker.com. As a nation, we are so concerned with terrorists and protecting our nation from other countries seeking harm that we are ignoring domestic gunmen. Now don’t get me wrong, we should most certainly be concerned with keeping our nation safe from terrorists but what about those citizens who abuse the right to own guns by just walking in public places and start shooting?

The great debate on whether people should be allowed to buy and carry guns continues to be popular. Yes, the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms but at what point does the nation come to realize it is time for a change? I understand people want to own guns to protect themselves but if what seems like anyone can just walk into a store and buy a gun continues to be okay, the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Having a weapon should be looked at as a privilege and the moment it was abused, it should have been taken away.

Point.

Blank.

Period.

Just like any rule that is put into place, when people start abusing it, it is taken away. Within the past ten years alone, multiple mass shootings have occurred. Some of the most well known are the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Columbine High School shooting in 1999 and the Aurora theatre shooting also in 2012, just to name a few. It’s becoming more frequent and almost mind-numbing. The country sits in shock initially, we mourn for those who are victims when all they simply did was walk outside their front door to live their lives and then time passes and everyone moves on.

The fact that majority of the gunmen of these mass shooting have legally purchased the weapons they use to do mass destruction is heartbreaking.

Compared to other countries, America is unfortunately leading the pack when it comes to rates of gun-homicide. 

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Unites States has the highest homicide-by-firearm rate than any other developed country. When it comes to semiautomatic assault weapons, handguns and certain military style rifles, there aren’t federal laws banning them. According to Business Insider, there is no legal right to possess a firearm in Canada and in order to have one, it takes 60 days to obtain, a mandatory license, a safety training course and a background check. As far as guns in the United Kingdom, someone wanting a firearm must possess a Firearm or Shotgun Certificate. Machine guns, semi automatics and other firearms are prohibited. The U.K. and Canada are countries that are examples of stricter gun laws and the results yield significantly lower gun homicide rates.  

While banning guns might be ideal, it’s not necessarily safe to say that if this banning of guns in the United States were to happen, the gun-homicide rate will go down. Unfortunately, people will still find loopholes to obtain weapons but maybe if America had stricter gun laws, obtaining a weapon would be much more of a hassle.

In light of the tragic incident in Oregon and every other mass shooting incident that has occurred prior to it, it is necessary that our gun laws be revisited and become much more stricter.  The media is often quick at covering the incidents when they happen and everyone swarms social media to state their opinions but even in doing so, gun laws or the lack of gun laws in America remain the same.