On February 14th, 2018, there was yet another mass school shooting South Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. This heartbreaking act left 17 innocent victims dead, and many others wounded. This event has prompted acceptable outrage by many distraught citizens of America.
The sad truth of this event is that our government leaders are not taking enough precautions and measures that they need to in order to ensure the safety of our students and children. People are sick and tired of being afraid to go to school, and parents shouldn’t have to live in constant fear that they will drop their children off at school and never see them again. We need stricter gun control laws enforced and we need them now. We will not wait once again for another shooting to happen before our legislators decide to ponder creating new gun laws. We do not want this to happen again. We want to stop this pattern before tragedy strikes again. I am asking you to please use your voice to advocate for yourself and for the people of our country. We deserve safety.
In an article written by Devin Hughes and Mark Bryant right after the Parkland Shooting, the authors state that all of the research and data that has been collected all leads to the same results: “More guns mean more crime and more death”. Personally, I believe that this is completely accurate. We need change, and we need it now.
There is an absurd amount of evidence that points towards a serious problem with our gun control laws in America. In our country alone there have been at least 31 school shootings since the beginning of the 21st century. This is an outrageous amount of tragedies, and too many families have been torn apart by each and every one of them.
Yes, owning guns is often seen as or called a hobby. Hunting is indeed a hobby. Personally, I am not a fan of hunting and taking the lives of innocent animals. However, I can totally respect that it is a fair activity for people to participate in. However, hunters use rifles, sot Semi-Automatic weapons. Nobody has any reason whatsoever to own a Semi-Automatic gun, regardless of the circumstances.
We need to act. The time is now. Teenagers all around the nation are using their voices to stand up for what they believe in and for what is ultimately just. We all deserve to feel safe in this country, whether we are in classroom or in our homes. Please, use this time to help be the change. We are on the cusp of something big right now, and the more voices that are spoken, the better the odds are of being heard. There will never be a mass school shooting in our country again. Enough is enough. Never again.
Ellie, This is an incredibly moving and relatable piece. The emotion that you contribute to this essay really helps portray the need for a change in gun laws. When you said, “People are sick and tired of being afraid to go to school, and parents shouldn’t have to live in constant fear that they will drop their children off at school and never see them again.”, I really connected to it because just two days ago at my school, we were put into an internal lockdown due to two bomb threats that were tipped in to the police. It was a very scary moment in my life, and many at our school believed it was a setup for a school shooting, just like how the fire alarm was set off in the Parkland shooting. As students, we should not have to go to school afraid we won’t be going home that day, and gun laws will help change that.
The second thing I really liked about your piece was when you talked about your counterclaim. Many of the people opposing the restrictions of guns are hunters. What these people need to understand is that they can still have their guns, just getting them should involve a much more secure and hard process. It is the big guns that aren’t necessary for hunting that is deteriorating our society. Mental health is a big issue, but without guns these people with psychological problems aren’t killing, and that is what needs to be stopped.
Great work!!
Thank you for sharing.
I found your post very interesting and appealing, this is one of the critical topic most people try to avoid in this country and over time and time again we end up at the same start. Gun violence in America is not just a disease that needs to be cured but destroyed. We see so many children, teens, old people, I mean so many people killed by gun violence and we are yet to find solutions to end those tragedy and the best way in doing so is having gun controls.
Ellie,
Thank you for sharing your post. I found it very interesting and intriguing. This is a huge issue within our society today. I know the USA has the most shootings in the entire world as we hard ahead by many deaths in the world by mass shootings then any other country by hundreds of deaths. Safety is a caution for every person in this country. Gun control laws are needed to be put into place and I feel as if there needs to be stricter safety of school regulations. Getting into schools are easy and convenient to an individual. Thank you for sharing your post this is a huge issue that needs to be addressed in society today more reasonably. Below is an article from the Salt Lake Tribune on gun control and the reasoning for what will be put forth in the future according to law.
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/guns-and-gun-control
Ellie, I completely agree with your stance on this subject. We have seen this happen to many times to not make a change. Innocent lives are being taken for no reason because we make it so easy to have access to fire arms. I think that the solution is gun control and regulation to make sure that they are properly stored, taken care of, and in the hands of somebody who isnt violent or mentally unstable. I truly hope we take action to make sure this never does happen again.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/america-s-gun-problem-explained-1060655345
Hey Ellie, I agree with your post that there should be a change in the gun control in America. There are way too many innocent people dying because of guns and like you stated earlier I agree that there really isn’t a need for semi-automatic guns or automatic guns. I think guns should be ban in general but I don’t think that is a possibly since guns are part of the constitution and it is use for “safety”. I really like how you conclude your post by saying “enough is enough. Never again” because it’s deep and there really should be no more gun violence in classrooms or anywhere around the world. I found an interesting article about Trump embracing gun control that you may want to read (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/us/politics/trump-gun-control.html). Anyways, thanks for your post and I look forward to see what you write next.