Last Friday, s school shooting occurred at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, where 10 people lost their lives and many others were wounded, marking it the 22nd school shooting of 2018, according to CNN. The Police identified the shooter as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, age 17, and has him in custody.
During these tragic moments in American history, “American Sniper” Chris Kyle’s wife, Taya Kyle, encouraged everyone to look towards themselves instead of more regulations or the government in an effort to curb gun violence.
Taya Kyle, whose husband was shot and killed, shared her thoughts on Facebook in a statement about how personal reflection can yield itself to finding a solution to the seemingly constant gun violence going on in the United States.
“Could you kill innocent people because you were angry or hurt?” she began.
Taya explained that she has heard some people say that if they had a gun in their car, they may kill someone out of road rage. She added that they already had a car, which can be also used as a weapon, but they didn’t use it to kill someone out of rage.
“You could kill someone. Why don’t you? Why don’t we do that when we are angry? When you are angry with people or a group of people why don’t you make a pipe bomb or an explosive out of a pressure cooker then plot, plan and kill people?”
She proposed the idea that when we find the answer as to “what stops” each of us from acting on that anger, “we will find more of what we need in this world.”
Taya stated that gun violence is a “human,” “moral,” and “values” issue and the influx in school shootings are “an attention-grabbing, cry for help, vengeance, out of control, no regard for submitting to the fallen world we live in, entitlement, expectations issue.”
The Santa Fe suspect reportedly targeted people who had wronged him in the past, including a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances.
“When did people grow up thinking they were so entitled to being free from pain that when they do feel it they feel someone else or a group of people should pay for it with their life?” she asked.
Taya continued, wondering, when people became “numb to write and wrong,” “stop caring for others more than themselves,” and that “their pain became more important than another human life.”
“Bureaucracy cannot fix the human spirit … This is you and me changing our ways and raising our children differently. This is you and me showing young people the world is hard at times, sometimes for a long time IN EVERY HUMAN LIFE. No one gets through this world without struggle.” she wrote.
Chris Kyle’s wife, Taya Kyle pointed out that it is very important for our children to be taught that “struggle is real” and “expected,” but also that they’re “capable of enduring in the face of adversity.”
“This is every single person in this country looking to themselves, not the government to fix this epidemic disregard for responsibility and human life,” she concluded.