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Students have an obligation to get involved in gun safety debate

Students+have+an+obligation+to+get+involved+in+gun+safety+debate

Amelia Brown ’18

Guns kill people. People kill people. The debate has come up, once again, about why America continues to have shooting after shooting after shooting. I know that it is not just one factor. Guns, mental health, culture, media and individual reasons all contribute to this epidemic. But I know something else. Thinking kills people.

Thinking that it won’t happen in your town. Thinking that someone else is already fighting this fight. Thinking that your government will finally make change on its own. This thinking will let more shootings continue to happen. If we have learned anything from the events at Staples this past week, it is that it can happen anywhere, so we have to fight, because our federal government is not protecting us.

Our school and police department did exactly what was needed to protect us from potentially becoming the next mass shooting. We even have a state government that is leading the way in gun safety. But that is not enough. For some reason, shootings have become a partisan political issue, so while 70 percent of Americans want stricter gun laws according to CNN, there is nothing being done. By demanding action, we’re not just fighting for our lives, we are fighting for the lives of every six year-old, every 14 year-old, every teacher.

It’s hard to say how many school shootings there have been this year. But let’s just look at one database. Education Week’s tracker counts “incidents where a firearm was discharged inside a K-12 school building or facility, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored event, resulting in injury or death of individuals who are not the suspect.” Using this, there were six school shootings in 2018 so far. Sixty-three people killed or injured. That seems like nothing compared to the 18 shootings other organizations tracking gun violence reported. But just one shooting is too many. One child murdered, one teacher sacrificed, one parent afraid is too many.

It is heartbreaking that it took the lives of 17 people to spark this student rebellion: two different marches, countless hashtags and nationwide walk outs are planned for the coming weeks. But much like the student war protesters of the 1960s and ’70s after the Kent State shooting, we can demand to not be ignored.

I can’t tell you what you should be asking our government to do. Some people think that banning bump stocks or tightening background checks or confiscating every AR-15 or allowing the CDC to research firearm related public-health or stopping NRA funding is the answer. I don’t know which it is. But coming together in our school and in our country can only lead to some kind of improvement.

The Parkland shooting was different. The students of Stoneman Douglas High School took the reins of the gun control debate. It is our job to hold the reins too. So, march. Protest. Walk out, sit in or speak up. We can’t let this just pass over and be forgotten in a few weeks like every other time. It’s our obligation to make the future for our kids safe, and that starts by living long enough to get there.

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  • A

    Anonymous UserMar 22, 2018 at 3:31 am

    Imagine, an administration is purposely allowing illegal guns sales, in large numbers, and then failing to properly track those illegal guns as they move into Mexico to be used by the drug cartels. I recall at the time that the Democrats were waging a PR campaign to ban guns in the USA based on cartel violence south of the border. We found out later that the Obama admin was running guns to the cartels and when this was exposed to the public, the PR to ban guns based on cartel violence stopped. Weren”t there some emails that showed some ATF or DOJ people requesting information that could be used to support the call to action on gun bans? There was also a press conference where Obama alluded to some gun control actions being taken behind the scenes but that he couldn”t talk about. The corruption of the Obama administration was only surpassed by a complicit media that covered up the tens of thousands of deaths south of the border just like they covered up Hezbollah running drug rings and money laundering operations in the USA.

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  • A

    Anonymous UserMar 21, 2018 at 12:38 pm

    This is what happens when hot headed, immature people carry loaded guns around get into heated disputes and arguments. Without guns this incident would have been at worst punches or maybe hookah pipes thrown, but more likely just some curse words and birdies exchanged, with the parties moving on. At least in a loud brawl bystanders can jump in break it up; with guns involved everybody takes cover ( who can blame them ?). The usual argument for allowing guns is freedom and self defense, ect But you rarely see guns drawn for “defense purposes, where some bad actor brandishes a gun in a public place and another random bystander draws his gun to shoot down the first guy, like Clinton in movies. Just get rid of guns altogether makes our country safer.

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  • D

    digitalpluralMar 11, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    Thank you, Sister. Happy, safe sailing.

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