Will The ‘Epidemic’ Of Gun Violence Ever End?
While the nation reeled at the fresh case of shooting at the FedEx facility in Indianapolis, the local Sikh community was in for further shock when the police released the names of the eight people killed in the gun violence. Four of the victims identified by local authorities were Amarjeet Kaur Johal, 66; Jaswinder Kaur, 64; Amarjit Sekhon, 48; and Jaswinder Singh, 68.
Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims of the Indianapolis FedEx shooting announced so far:
Matthew R. Alexander
Samaria Blackwell
Amarjeet Kaur Johal
Jaswinder Kaur
Jaswinder Singh
Amarjit Sekhon
Karli Smith
John Weisert(list via @WISH_TV)
— Sikh Coalition (@sikh_coalition) April 17, 2021
The last month has been fraught with cases of shootings that have affected the Asian and South Asian communities at the core.
President Joe Biden voiced his frustration in remarks from the White House. “This has to end. It’s a national embarrassment. It is a national embarrassment what’s going on,” he said at a joint news conference he addressed with his first foreign guest after taking office, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
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Biden unveiled a modest package of gun law reforms last week to stop this ‘epidemic’ of gun violence. The legislation is before Congress for expanding background checking, but as we have seen before, it has no chance of being passed. And there is also no movement towards banning military-style assault rifles that are used most frequently in mass shootings of this nature.
According to The Washington Post’s database, there were 13 mass shootings in 2019, with 90 people killed and another 112 injured.
There seemed to be fewer mass shootings in 2020 — five, according to The Washington Post’s tally. These low numbers seem to have been the result of the ongoing pandemic, which kept people in their houses and out of workplaces, schools, and other public spaces that have become the hunting grounds for those with the twisted intent of killing innocents.
But now, as the pandemic is easing and some normalcy is returning, the pace of mass shootings has picked up. In just four months, there have already been more carnage than in all of last year. Among the locations: an office building in California; spas in Georgia; a supermarket in Colorado; a popular commercial area in Chicago. The latest tragedy came Thursday night when a gunman stormed into a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis and within mere minutes killed eight people and injured at least seven others.
The pandemic will run its course and eventually come to an end. But it seems like the disease of gun violence, which has eroded the soul of America, will take a much longer time.
