When thinking of people dying by assault rifles, we think of war, video games, and movies–but on March 22nd, 2021, it happened at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. 10 people died this day while doing an everyday thing; grocery shopping. Not even a week prior to this, a gunman killed eight Asian Americans in three different spas in Atlanta. This is not anything new, in fact seeing the news did not surprise me. I’ve been disappointed time and time again by our nation’s failure to keep our people safe. 

Being an American, a Colorado native, and a future CU Boulder student, this shooting hit close to home and it’s not the first time I’ve felt connected to a mass shooting. In 2012, a family member of mine, Micayla Medek, died in the shooting at the Century 16 movie theater. This was a movie theater I grew up in, I had connections to, and loved being at. It was part of what I considered home, but overnight it took a family member away from me.

Shootings across the nation are more relatable than anybody can imagine. In 2018, I stood on my school’s track and field honoring the 17 people killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Months later, I experienced sitting in a dark room texting my parents to tell them I loved them because I wasn’t sure if I was going to come home from school that day. I should not be scared to go to school

As a community we’ve grown so used to these shootings happening–they have become normal. In Colorado alone, we have had more than 10 mass shootings since 1999. People are dying regularly because of guns and we grieve, we mourn, we gather together and pray, but when are we going to take action?

I am so fed up with hearing people give their “thoughts and prayers” as if that is going to prevent the next person from losing their life to a gun. We all feel like it will never happen to us until it does. This is not the first mass shooting in Colorado, but it needs to be the last. 

It’s time to stand together and create change in not only our state, but our country. Demand gun laws that are efficient in reducing gun violence; at minimum it’s important for us to reduce firearm accessibility to youth, require safe gun storage, and require in depth background and mental health checks to purchase a gun. We need to ban military grade assault weapons! 

The attack on Boulder was the 7th mass shooting in 7 days in the US whereas other countries such as New Zealand banned semi automatic weapons in 2019, less than 24 hours after a mass shooting in a mosque. Since this ban, New Zealand has not had a mass shooting since the one on March 15th, 2019. 

Mourn and grieve the lives of these people, there is damage done to all of our hearts from these mass shootings, but even though we are hurting we cannot allow this to happen again. 

Here are links to different ways you can support gun violence victims, gun control laws, and other ways to help out: 

March For Our Lives demands 

Finding support and help

Amplify Survivor Voices

Students Demand Action

Moms Demand Action

Moments that Survive