As the year begins to come to a close, we get to look back at all the amazing ways the American government has failed its people. Our government has grown so arrogant that it refuses to even nod in the direction of the general well-being of the nation. 

Legislature would rather citizens continue to die en masse then consider reforming gun laws.

It’s the same story over and over again. It feels like every week there is yet another city in America that is the trending hashtag, then it falls to the wayside for the next, because it is.

According to USA Today, the Thousand Oaks shooting is the 307th shooting in 311 days.

It’s a different place with a different number, but nevertheless, the same outcome. American people are dying because politicians are too busy licking the boots of the NRA for campaign money. 

OpenSecrets reports that as of 2018, the NRA contributed 805,122 dollars to the election cycle. Ninety-eight percent of which was donated to members of the Republican party.

Coming from a majority blue state, it would be very easy to assume that we are safe from the NRA stronghold, but that is not quite so. There are 16 current member of Congress in California among other states that received donations from the NRA. Ken Calvert, Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter, Devin Nunes, David Valadao, Dana Rohrabacher, Kevin McCarthy, Tom McClintock, Duncan D. Hunter, Ed Royce, Paul Cook, Doug LaMalfa, Mike Thompson, Mimi Walters and Steve Knight all received donations from the NRA as of Oct. 2017, according to NBC Bay Area.

Many candidates were re-elected just last week, yet we are supposed to sit back and feel comfortable knowing that this will all blow over in a few weeks. Soon the country’s focus will shift to another town in another state with another mass shooting, and Thousand Oaks will be a distant memory for most of us.

But there is no blowing over for the families of the 12 in the Borderline Bar and Grill, or the 11 of the Tree of Life Synagogue, 17 in Parkland, 58 in Las Vegas, 25 in Texas, 49 in Orlando, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Columbine. This is only one more in a list of countless, senseless deaths due to a person with a gun and a drive to kill.

Perhaps it’s time to stop blaming the gun, and maybe it’s even time to stop blaming the men behind gun, but rather blame the culture and the legislature of our country that allows for this situation to be common place. 

Normalization of gun violence is perpetuation of gun violence. It will not stop unless there is a blunt end to gun culture.

Our nation has a serious problem with admitting that our obsession with the Second Amendment has outgrown our duty to the safety of our people. 

We don’t need anymore thoughts and prayers. The victims are not angels that God needed sooner. We need gun reform, and we need to acknowledge that these people were murdered in cold blood for no good reason.