February 14, 2018

In Parkland, Florida, Nikolas Cruz used his AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle and killed 17 young students and injured many. Not one of those students who were perished, thought that they would be gunned down in a place they thought they were safe. Not even the parents, who dropped off their children and went to back home or to work. No one simply thought that the sunny, bright day would turn bloody and chaotic. So many of those students had their future ripped away from them. Their dreams of going to college, or traveling the world snatched away from them. How does Cruz hold the right to snatch those kids dreams away? Who gave him that right? How could he wake up one day and think of killing so many people within minutes? Cruz traumatized the student of the high school and they went to the internet to voice the horrors they saw.

“I cannot stop hearing the sound of the gun as he walked down my hallway. I cannot unsee my classmates who were shot get carried out by police. I cannot unsee the bodies on the floor. Please keep in mind the horror of what we’ve gone through today. #prayfordouglas”

Heart wrenching. Horrifying. Devastating.

“Never in a million years did I think I would have EVER gone through this. There is NO reason why I should have had to run past deceased friends and classmates to get to safety because there isn’t a control on how easy it is to get a gun.”

A lot of debates have risen after this shooting, some think that buying a gun should be restricted, others think that this was not a gun issue rather a mental health issue. It is very obvious that Cruz is a mentally ill person, no normal person would go and shoot up a school. But, my question is that how lenient are the requirements in Florida for him to get so many assault weapons? Some blame the NRA for pumping politicians with money to promote them and their ideas. I have heard of politicians who were given money from that organization and are tweeting about sending their thoughts and prayers to the victims. Donald Trump tweeted his condolences, which did not sit well with a lot of people. Especially, a student from the high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She tweeted “I don’t want your condolences you f*****g piece of s**t, my friends and teachers were shot. Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers won’t fix this. But gun control will prevent it from happening again.” She is right because what do thoughts and prayers really do? They won’t bring the dead back, help heal the families who lost their loved ones or prevent future mass shootings.

A change in gun control and mental health is needed to prevent such tragedies. There are countries who have strict gun laws, who do not have numerous amount of school shootings. I think this country can use their example and come up with something that will prevent more people from being gunned down. I am not saying that people who own legal guns should have their guns taken away but a thorough background check is needed to see if the person has had any criminal activity or mental health issues. I think guidelines should be put in place and a very complicated and lengthy process should be established before giving a person the responsibility to carry an armed weapon.