SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — After multiple people were killed in another instance of gunfire in Philadelphia Sunday Morning, there is even more focus on what the country can do to stop it.
Jaclyn Schildkraut, Professor of Criminal Justice at SUNY Oswego and National mass shooting expert, says it is happening so much that not every instance of gun violence makes headlines.
“There seems to be sort of a familiar normalization, if you will, of these tragedies or a familiar kind of overlooking,” she said.
“And I say that because last week on the same evening that President Biden made his speech about gun control, four people were killed in a Tulsa hospital and it barely made the news.”
Just in the past few weeks there have been multiple tragedies with mass casualties, which can make it difficult to go about our everyday lives.
“I know it’s really hard for people to believe right now, even myself, because every day it’s oh, God, here we go again,” she said, “The reality is it’s still very rare in the context of all of the crimes that happen in the United States.”
But while she says it is rare, one of the things it’s important to keep in the back of your mind is that these things can happen anywhere.
“When you say it can’t happen here, you tend to take a more complacent approach. You aren’t necessarily as vigilant or as aware of your surroundings. And being aware doesn’t mean being fearful. It just means knowing what’s going on around you.”
Schildkraut says it is easy to and understandable to be emotional after tragedies like we have seen recently but she says the right change will come when we look at evidence.
“I would just encourage everybody that while it’s absolutely okay to feel the way that we do, we also have to address these problems in their context and in ways that are based on evidence, Because emotion hasn’t solved the problem for the last 23 years since Columbine, and it’s not going to do it now.”
