On Valentine’s Day 2018, 17 people were killed in a horrifying school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The shooter was a 19-year-old former student of the school named Nikolas Cruz who had been expelled for unknown disciplinary reasons.
Several things about this shooting strike me as being utterly horrifying. The first being 17 adults and high school students being killed by a clearly troubled former student with whom they undoubtedly roamed the halls just one year ago.
AR-15 assault rifles are primarily designed for use by the military personnel and law enforcement officials, and it should stay that way.
The second is the fact that the weapon used in this shooting was an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle used primarily by law enforcement officials and the military. My question is: why was a troubled 19-year-old able to get his hands on a weapon of this magnitude?
I realize that survivors and families of the victims deserve time to grieve, but we simply cannot ignore the discussions that should be occurring in our country in the aftermath of this shooting.
Gun homicide rates in the U.S. are 25 times the average of other high-income countries. Wake up, people.
Statistics show that the gun homicide rate in the United States is more than 25 times the average of other high-income countries. I find this to be absolutely abhorring. There is also an average of 96 people killed per day by guns.
We must consider the good that could come as a result of enacting stricter gun control legislation in our country. Will we ever be able to completely eliminate gun violence? No. We will simply never be able to do that.
There are already thousands of guns possessed in our society. However, by making room for stricter background checks, a longer process to purchase a firearm and a restriction on the types of firearms that can be purchased, I feel we could make some serious changes.
What some people fail to understand is that gun control does NOT mean a revoking of rights granted by the second amendment to the United States Constitution. It is simply an attempt to reduce the rates of gun violence epidemics by making it harder for the mentally ill to access guns.
Do you remember your American history class? Weapons have evolved since the adaptation of the 2nd Amendment in 1791.
We must also keep in mind that when the second amendment was added to the Constitution in 1791, the most advanced weapons were muskets and flintlock pistols. We now have semi-automatic AR-15 rifles that can fire up to 30 rounds per minute. The firearms we have today are contrastive to those from that era.
Maybe this should be a wake-up call to stop voting for House and Senate Republicans who are graciously contributed to by the National Rifle Association and care about nothing but their seats and start voting for those who actually want to make a difference and protect our interests.
The survivors and families of the victims are calling for Congress to take action.
Finally, we should consider what could actually result from this shooting. People all over the country, including survivors of the shooting, have been calling for gun reform to occur. Here is a transcript of Emma Gonzalez's speech calling on Pres. Trump to act:
"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened, and maintains telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association. But, hey, you want to know something? It doesn’t matter, because I already know: $30 million! And divided by the number of gunshot victims in the United States in the one-and-one-half months in 2018 alone, that comes out to being $5,800. Is that how much these people are worth to you, Trump? If you don’t do anything to prevent this from coming—from continuing to occur, that number of gunshot victims will go up, and the number that they are worth will go down. And we will be worthless to you. To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you."
Below is a tweet sent out by Pres. Trump on February 17, 2018:
Pres. Trump identified as a Democrat in the past. Does this mean he will work with Congress on gun control?
The President appears to be blaming Democrats for failing to act on gun control. However, we should be asking if this means that he is willing to work with Congress to pass gun control legislation.
He seems to change his mind a lot, given that he called for a ban on bump stocks but also suggested that no gun zones be banned and teachers be armed as a solution to school safety. It will be interesting to see what conclusion the President comes to.
Gun control aside, my sincerest condolences go out to the victims of this tragic incident of gun violence and their families. We will remember you and we will not stop fighting for you Every. Single. Day.
