On Thursday, 10 people were killed and nine others were injured during a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. 

 

This is not the first Minnesota Daily editorial about guns. On Sep. 14, we urged legislators not to “postpone a conversation about gun violence that we desperately need to have.” If another editorial about guns seems redundant, that’s because the problem has become numbing.

 

America has a higher rate of gun violence than any other developed country in the world. There have been more than 40 school shootings in 2015 alone. A mass shooting does not seem like breaking news anymore. For many of us, learning of these tragic stories has become routine. 

 

Still, we are writing another editorial on guns because we refuse to be part of America’s resignation to the alarming frequency of gun-related tragedies in our country. We are writing another editorial on guns because a shooting at a quiet community college with a low crime rate could have easily been a shooting at a school in Minnesota. We are writing another editorial on guns because staying silent means that we are part of the problem. 

 

If you are tired of reading about gun violence, call your representative. Call your senator. Call them again. Make sure your friends do, too. Congress needs to pass common-sense gun control laws, and they need to pass them now. But Congress is gripped tightly by a powerful gun lobby. Unless Americans demand action, gun-related tragedies will remain routine.