On September 16 2013, a shooting took place at the Washington Navy Yard, and just three days later, another shooting took place on a basketball court in Chicago, leaving a three-year-old boy in critical condition. Admittedly, I only learned about these shootings a few days after they took place. My article following these shootings sought to discuss and question Americans’ reactions.

“I am ashamed that I only learned about the Chicago shooting an entire day after it had happened, and I am worried that our nation does not appear to be as alarmed or distraught by the violence.

Have Americans become so accustomed to mass shootings in our country that they are just considered routine? Does the fact that an innocent 3-year-old was severely injured from gun violence not seem as disheartening as it did nine months ago? And as Cenk Uygur, a Turkish-American political commentator, tweeted, “One day someone’s going to shoot 12 people & people aren’t even going to notice because it’s so common. Is today that day?”

I hope not. And the majority of the American people hope not as well.

It is clear that something needs to change and that stricter gun control is the change we need so that that day never comes.”

Read more from the original article here