"No Way to Prevent This"

On Wednesday, there was a tragic attack in Parkland, FL due to senseless and horrifying gun violence. In response, The Onion posted this article. In wake of Wednesday’s events, The Onion, in this article, ironically expresses the idea that gun violence, and more specifically mass shootings, are something Americans must learn to live with, because nothing can be done to prevent them.

The article notes, “‘This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,’ said Indiana resident Harold Turner, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations.’” Turner goes on to say, “‘It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what they really wanted.’”

They continued to lament the point that Americans citizens have concluded that there is no foreseeable way to stop these mass shootings from occurring - the situation is completely “helpless,” to quote the article. Through obvious understatement and situational irony, The Onion is trying to alert people to the facts of how frankly absurd it is that so many mass shooting have occurred in the United States recently, and how, as a nation we need less talk and prayers, and more policy action and actual change to stop attacks like these from happening in the future.

The articles capitalizes on the technique of situational irony, because they frame the problem of mass shootings in the light opposite of reality. By continually noting “there’s nothing anyone can do to stop [mass shootings]” they are really conveying the point that it is far beyond time that Americans wake up to the fact that we need new, tighter policies for gun control. For example, stronger background checks and less accessibility to firearms for those on mental health and criminal watch. Those are very real ways that other countries, such as Australia, have limited gun violence, and ways that the United States needs to as well. This article was a stark reminder that what happened in Parkland this week, and what has happened far too often around the country in the opening weeks of 2018, will not end because of talk and thoughts and prayers, but because of policy makers coming together to create better gun control legislation.