The room filled to capacity with laughter and smiles all around. At the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, people gathered together to either enjoy “College Country Night” or to have a few beers while watching the Lakers game on television on Wednesday, November 7th.

All of a sudden, a man with a gun was spotted, “wearing dark clothing and a dark baseball cap…set off smoke bombs to create confusion,” according to The New York Times journalists, Jose A. Del Real, Jennifer Medina, and Tim Arango. This man would soon be identified as Ian David Long, a 28-year-old former Marine who was the gunman of this horrific shooting.

What was supposed to be a fun night to ease back and relax with friends and family, turned into a horrifying event that no one should ever have to go through. But with today’s poor gun laws, many mentally ill people continue to get their hands on guns that should definitely not be able to easily purchase one.

When asked about her thoughts on the recent tragedy, my mother stated, “that it’s hard to believe that an individual had to flee for his life twice due to the same type of mass shootings in a year. I don’t understand how we can go on after a shooting and our poor gun laws remain the same.” Unfortunately, some of the victims happened to also be at the Las Vegas country music festival shooting just a little over a year ago on October 1st, 2017, “where 58 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in modern American history,” stated The New York Times. In Thousand Oaks, the gunman actually shot himself after killing 12 other innocent people. Seriously, how many more deaths will be enough to establish tighter gun laws?