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8 Tweets That Reveal How Frustrated America Is

by Elizabeth King

In the wake of yet another tragic story relating to gun violence in the U.S., Americans are indicating utter exasperation with the state of firearm violence. With the recent indictment of Dylann Roof, allegedly responsible for the shooting in Charleston, S.C., the end of the trial for James Holmes, where jurors found the death penalty to be justified, and now the news of the movie theater shooting in Lafayette, La., it is more than understandable that this issue is at a boiling point. Many have taken to Twitter to condemn the state of gun violence in America. The shooter in Lafayette was identified as 59-year-old John R. Houser, who killed two and injured 12 on Thursday evening.

Almost immediately, social media was flooded with commentary from those who are frustrated, exasperated, and completely fed up with report after report of killings committed with firearms. According to the Gun Violence Archives, there have been 27,931 violent incidents relating guns, 14,398 injuries, and 7,171 deaths in the U.S., just in 2015 alone. The site has produced a map that shows the distribution of gun violence across the country, showing a stark concentration in the Eastern and Southern parts of the U.S.

Twitter users throughout the United States are expressing how dire they feel the situation is, and their frustration with the frequency of gun-related deaths and injuries.

A lot of people expressed a desire to see an overall decrease in gun ownership.

Some have the feeling that policies are not changing to keep up with the rise in firearm crime.

For several years, mass shootings have recalled painful memories of the Sandy Hook shooting tragedy.

There is confusion and frustration regarding policies that allow for dangerous citizens to obtain guns.

It seems that a deadly shooting could happen anywhere, making some feel unsafe and want to see stricter gun laws.

Many have been calling attention to the fact that several recent mass shootings have been perpetrated by white males (Holmes, Roof, and Houser among them).

There are high levels of frustration over the fact that the U.S. sees significantly more citizen gun violence than many other western nations.

In the face of so many gun-related killings, many want to ensure that we do not begin to see murders as anything less than the tragedies they are.