What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?  Not this time. If you don’t already know, early yesterday morning  64-year-old, Stephen Paddock, took it upon himself to arrange over 10 automatic weapons from his room on the 32nd floor in the Mandalay Bay. Paddock opened fire into the Route 91 music festival on the Las Vegas strip. He is responsible for the death of 59 individuals and injuries to more than 500 classifying this as the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

This is an act of domestic terrorism ignited by a white male. Individuals tend to associate terrorism with foreign countries when this is very far from the truth. I read a false headline yesterday while the shooter was still unnamed that read ” Shooter connected with ISIS”. The media is so quick to profile these types of events and assume it was a certain type of person. We as a country need to wake up and realize that these horrific events are happening on our home base by our own people. It is so heartbreaking that these mass shootings are becoming apart of our reality. I am only twenty two years old and I have already lived through four of the events: Sandy Hook 27 killed – 2 injured, Virginia Tech 32 killed – 23 injured, Pulse Nightclub 49 killed – 58 injured, Las Vegas 59 killed- 500+ injured.

It throws me off how the media emphasizes the fact that he “had no criminal record” as if that is something we the public care about, as if that makes him any less of a terrorist. Wake up America. All I ask is that you question why the N.R.A. has such a strong hold on the people in power. What can we do to prevent this? Stricter gun laws. GUN CONTROL. Use your voice. Speak your truth. We should not have to fear going to school, movies, or concerts. We should not have to think to ourselves “I’ll risk a mass shooting and go in public today”. This is not the reality I want to live. Attention people of power: your “thoughts and prayers” aren’t enough.