The unfortunate inevitability of another tragic and devastating shooting has once again rocked the nation on February 13th, when all across the country Americans checked the news to find yet another mass shooting took place in a location that should by all regards, be deemed safe.

On Monday night, three students were killed in a mass shooting at Michigan State University, with an additional five critically injured. This tragedy marks the seventy-first mass shooting in the United States this year alone.

Most devastatingly of all is perhaps the idea that we as a nation have accepted these tragedies as a simple inevitability. It is nearly impossible to grasp the gravity of these horrific ordeals when we have become so overexposed to these senseless acts of violence that they may even begin to congeal together in our minds.

Continuously, we mindlessly scroll through social media and learn that innocent people were attacked and ultimately murdered with assault rifles that are consistently flaunted, and deemed a “right” by our government that is supposed to serve to protect us. We repost a hashtag hoping for peace, we send thoughts and prayers, some even take to the streets petitioning for change, but ultimately, the tragedy is quickly forgotten and overshadowed with the next flashy tabloid story.

However, as a society we must not forget. We must apply pressure to lawmakers to ensure these victims are not forgotten, and that such devastating tragedies are no longer allowed to continue. If not, we face a future that is marred with danger for generations to come.

This is exemplified by one MSU student’s story surrounding the tragedy. As details of the shooting emerged, the public quickly learned that Jaqueline Matthews, a 21-year-old from Newton, Connecticut had previously survived the infamous Sandy Hook shootings of 2012. 

When we as a nation have allowed this pervasive issue to rise to the extent that victims are subjected to these horrifying incidents more than once, it is indicative of a very clear, and very terrifying pattern and systemic problem.

Ultimately, the argument can best be summarized through John Locke’s famous sentiment, “The purpose of government is to secure and protect the God-given inalienable natural rights of the people.”

When a government has decided that the right to bear arms, (a sentiment decreed long before the capability to produce weapons of current calibers could ever be fathomed) takes precedence over the right to life, that government is failing its people.

While it is an unfortunate truth that this shooting is not a unique incident, and likewise will not be the last of its kind, it does not change the immovable notion that we can not let this incident fade into obscurity like so many others before it. This was not the first act of senseless gun violence, but with proper reform, as a nation we can ensure that it is the last.