Yesterday I was in the park with my dog and my mom’s boyfriend, enjoying the beautiful day while we waited for my mom and my husband to come home. My dog was off leash, sniffing around at bird and squirrel tracks and casually following us as we walked at a slow pace. My mom’s boyfriend often takes my dog to the park when he visits, usually without a leash. My dog is always good about it, coming when called and expelling her Border Collie energy, which, at the age of 12, is not as high as it was when she was younger.
My mom came immediately to the park when she arrived home and told us to get inside. “Why?” I asked plainly, concerned if something had happened to my husband or what would cause her to make such a demand. Her response was memorable: there’s a teenager walking around with a gun.
When you hear this phrase in the United States, you immediately think “mass shooting.” It’s an all too frequent occurrence in this country, with mass shootings in 2023 occurring more than days in the year so far. Without more information, I was unsure if we were in immediate danger or if the gunman was farther away. Even though just 24 hours earlier I had been suicidal, my survival instincts kicked in. My dog was hanging back with my mom’s boyfriend, and since I didn’t know where the gunman was, I did not want to shout to her. I also did not know if the gunman was around the corner, and therefore did not want my dog running into danger.
When I reached my mom, I quickly gathered more details: it was a teenager with a pistol, not an assault rifle, and he was near the road pointing the gun at cars. I still hurried inside, unsure what was happening and fearing that my neighborhood might make it onto the evening news. My mom had already called the police to report it, but since she could not remember specifically not seeing an orange tip because the kid was hiding behind trees as if he were taking cover in a combat zone, the police assumed everything was fine.
This is not the first time I have witnessed a lack of concern from local police. They were quick to shoot and kill a loose dog who showed no signs of aggression but were very hesitant to knock on the door of my neighbors’ apartment when I called to report their kid screaming during what sounded like domestic violence. They claim they are overwhelmed, and maybe they are—they have been posting repeatedly on Facebook that they are hiring officers. All I know is every time we have needed the police for something, they did not see it as a priority.
This is not a big city with a lot of murders. This is a town of just over 26,500 with a crime rate that has decreased over the years. It’s a town surrounded by farmland in rural Pennsylvania in a county full of Mennonites and farmers. Crime is certainly higher than it should be in such a small city, but it isn’t like downtown York—there are areas that my mom would never drive through when we lived there. Even with higher crime in York, the police investigated safety concerns, such as the time my brother’s Michael Myers Halloween costume was a bit too realistic for a neighbor.
I know some people will think “how can you not remember if you saw an orange tip?” This is the United States of America where mass shooting and gun violence are far too common. When you see a suspicious person with a gun, your first instinct is likely to get as far away from danger as possible, unless you are one of those heroic types whose first instinct is to take out the gunman. My mom knew I had my phone turned off because I was taking a practice test in my statistics class. She came home to discover that I was actually outside…without my phone.
The thing about living in the USA isn’t so much what happens if you encounter a gunman of any kind, it’s what happens when you encounter one. We all hope it never happens, but it feels unsafe to do something as simple as go to the grocery store, or even go to a park right behind your home. Many Americans feel that guns keep them safe, but at what cost? So many have died because of gun violence and children are not even safe in their own schools, and yet we do nothing to change it.
I certainly am not one for taking away all guns, but we need some sort of reform in favor of public safety. Toy guns need to look more like toys and not real guns—our society is no longer safe enough to allow such accurate replicas with tiny orange barrels that are not obvious from a distance. And parents really need to properly educate their kids on gun safety and why you should not behave suspiciously when you are playing with realistic-looking toy guns.
As far as I know, nothing came of yesterday’s incident. We can be thankful for that, but what about the next time? Who says that teenager will not be the next mass shooter in a school or movie theater.
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