People who live in cities like Compton, Los Angeles, Inglewood, or South Central have been shot and killed almost every night since the 1990s. But how many of those deaths were reported, seen in published articles, or used as motives to raise awareness?

Since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida took place, many people have shined light on one of America’s most crucial socio-economic issues: gun reform. After the shooting, many of the students who survived stood up in valor to protest against gun laws.

“I believe that gun laws should’ve been overseen years ago,” senior Jose Portillo said.

Taking a step forward to change the way we acquire guns is something that should’ve been discussed any time between 1994 and 2013, when 23,094 Los Angeles residents died due to gun violence. If some kind of reformation would have been done, then maybe the school shootings that have taken place since then would not have occurred.

“It isn’t right,” sophomore Baltazar Cruz said. “More kids die in the slums than in school shootings.”

In 2016 there were 1,368 gun-related homicides in California. Gun control has always been a central issue in America, but why are we just now questioning the way we access guns?

“Just because they’re from the suburbs they’re getting the spotlight,” Cruz said. “Killing [has] been going on in the ghettos all around us.”

Within the past 12 months, there were 288 reported deaths in the Los Angeles county, and in Chicago 98 homicides were due to gunshots. We only hear of these homicides when the number of deaths escalates, other than that no talk of gun control has ever been seriously thought out. After the church shooting that transpired in Sutherland Springs, Texas, some suggested gun reform. Former U.S. president Barack Obama wanted to prevent those who are mentally ill from procuring a gun, however, current U.S. president Donald J. Trump repealed that law saying that it’s “not fair” and that they won’t “screw around with the second amendment.”

“This rule – which never went into effect before being rescinded – did not change any existing laws regulating who is allowed to purchase guns. It merely would have provided a new way to enforce existing restrictions on gun sales by allowing a transfer of information from one agency to another,” writer Alex Kasprak said on Snopes.

Does America really need mass shootings to occur multiple times in order realize we need to take action?