Secondly, people are exposed to mass shootings each day, and still nothing is done. People are expected to hear about this violence and then continue on as if it did not even happen. Mass shootings do have an impact on individuals who are not victims or survivors of the crime. People are still disturbed by these, but because gun violence has been normalized, people feel obligated to deny their initial reactions. But those reactions of sadness and frustration must be acted on because they reflect the need for change. This is the clear message of the poem “California in my Kitchen” by Samira Asma-Sadque. She writes about a couple who are going about their day normally when her husband hears about a shooting on the news. Just like that, the moment passes as they begin to talk about something else. Asma-Sadque writes “‘There’s been a mass shooting in southern California, 12 dead.’/ My heart hurts/ the rest of me doesn’t. Nobody reacts to ordinary things like the night becoming sunlight”(Asma-Sadeque). Gun violence has become so common in the US that the narrator compares it to the rising sun. It has become something that is expected everyday to the point where it no longer draws the attention of people en