There have been 58 mass shootings in the United States since I arrived at American University on August 17. As October 15, there have been 300 mass shootings. Before coming here, I studied in Taiwan for two years and seven months. That’s about 970 days. In that period of time, there was one mass stabbing spree in 2014 on the Taipei metro, and no mass shootings. And in my home country of Malaysia, where I lived for the past 21 years, only one mass shooting occurred in 2007.

Shootings happen in the US, I know that. I knew that before coming here. Yes, you can say to me: “if you don’t like it, leave.” But I like it here. There’s a lot to like: good food, friendly people, freedom of speech, the list is endless. What I don’t like, is the reaction that Americans have to these senseless acts of killing, from politicians playing the blame game and saying “these things happen,” to the average American who reacts with complete indifference. 

Before starting classes at American University, I had to sit through orientation. As with freshman orientation at my home institute in Taiwan, there was a campus safety presentation. I don’t remember much from that freshman orientation, but what I do remember is the biggest threat on campus there was your umbrella being stolen. I will definitely never forget the section about active shooter situations on campus at the AU orientation.  The casual way the presenter talked about it, telling us that we would get a text through the AU system warning us to get off campus or stay away, brought home the reality of life in America, where guns are the norm, and gun violence and mass shootings are routine.

Americans have an obsession with guns. You live in one of the few countries that give you the constitutional right to bear arms. But that right has been, is being, and will continue to be misused over and over again, unless policy and attitudes change. Instead of saying “these things happen,” ask “why do these things happen?”. If you think mental illness is the problem, join the conversation about mental illness, instead of pretending it does not exist. Anytime the words “gun control” are brought up, don’t have the same reaction that characters in Harry Potter had when Voldemort’s name was mentioned. Gun control laws should not be “You-Know-What” laws.

After the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon on October 2, President Obama made his 15th address after a mass shooting. He addressed the nation, “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this.” 

In contrast, when the Taipei Metro stabbing happened in Taiwan, the media went wild. The news outlets ran reports for weeks dissecting the event, from the convict’s motives, to the factors that let the stabbings happen. The reporting for these articles were overdone, emotional, and fear-mongering. There was definitely some middle ground needed. However, there’s much to be said when the American media reports mass shootings the same way the Taiwanese media reports a weather anomaly.

The Taipei metro stabbings also rekindled the debate on mental health, the death penalty, and metro safety. Immediately following the event, the security on the metro and on train platforms visibly increased, with police patrols becoming more prominent, and security guards riding in metro cars. The Taipei city government did everything it could to make commuters feel safe again. The DC metro too was the scene of a fatal stabbing of AU alumni Kevin Sutherland over the summer, but the security (or lack of), remains much the same.

In the aftermath of the plethora of school shootings over the past two weeks, anyone and everyone who had a say weighed in on the issue of gun control. After the Oregon shootings,  Republican presidential contender Ben Carson suggested that the victims of a mass shooting should “rush the shooter.” Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee defended the Second Amendment rights by saying that gun violence was a result of “evil people doing evil things.” Donald Trump responded to the shootings by blaming it on “sick people.”

It seems to me that much of the debate about why and how these shootings happen involves finger pointing, blaming it on “evil,” and then the all encompassing mental health defense. No one ever looks at the terrifying number of guns, an average of nine guns for every ten people in America, and the overwhelming amount of research that points to the fact that more guns equals more crime. 

Yes, it is people who kill people, so following that logic, what happens when you give people easy access to guns? The Oregon shooter, Chris Harper-Mercer, reportedly had Asperger’s syndrome, which supports Trump’s mental health statement. What he ignores is the fact that Harper-Mercer had easy access to stockpile of loaded guns that his mother kept at home.

The gun control debate in America is not new. Every time a mass shooting happens it is picked up again, yet it never goes anywhere. As a foreigner, it does not make sense to me why nothing is ever done. Why does the government not push to make life safer for its citizens? How many more children and innocent people need to die before there are stricter gun control laws? What needs to change?  

Gun owners will fight to the death for their Second Amendment rights. We’ve all heard the argument, “it’s for protection,” but the Second Amendment was written 220 years ago when everyone used muskets. While the majority of people who own guns today are responsible gun owners, laws are made to cater to the lowest common denominator. Most people don’t go out and rob banks, but the law imposes sanctions upon anyone who does. Why shouldn’t this logic apply to guns as well?

Unlike in the US, gun culture is pretty non-existent in Malaysia and Taiwan, and gun ownership is more of a privilege than a right. Guns are more negatively viewed and linked to criminals or gangsters. Gun trafficking is a problem that the governments of these countries are regularly trying to curtail. For the most part, only people who have served in the military or police force would ever hold a gun. 

In Taiwan, the Self-defense Guns Control Act requires anyone who owns a gun to have a  license for it, and imposes a limit on the number of guns a single person or family can own. If an individual is found to be unable to responsibly handle firearms, the city or county government buys back the weapons. In Malaysia, we have the Arms Act 1960 that also requires a permit for the possession, carrying or use of arms or ammunition. Singapore bans guns outright. In the US, most states only require permits for “concealed carry”, and states with looser gun control laws see more gun violence than states with stricter gun control.

I’m just an exchange student that is here for a year. However, I know that no problem is solved with silence. Problems don’t go away if you don’t talk about them. I say the same about any of the problems that my home country has (corruption), and I say the same about the problems in Taiwan (a closed-off island mind-set). So maybe, America, we can talk about your problems for once.