Yet Again, the Road to Stricter Gun Laws proved narrow after a school shooting

Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Beigel, Martin Duque Anguiano, Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis……

These look like normal names. However, in reality, they are so much more. These are just 5 out of the 17 dead, and many injured in the Parkland, Florida High School shooting. These are lives that were taken, inevitably, by a man with a gun. More specifically, a man with an AR-15 assault rifle.

If you were to look up ‘how many school shootings have there been since 1999?’ there will be several different answers, ranging from 20-300. Why is that? Some of these statistics suggest only the fatal events that happened where there were one or more tragedies. Others provide the numbers of any incident in which a student had a gun on campus. Some entail school shooting threats, one including a recent danger in my old high school back home in Grayson, GA. In either situation, however dire or fatal, involved the one thing that seems to be a recurring concern.

The prevalent matter on guns has been an ongoing issue in today’s politics. School shootings are a national matter and always fill people with enough rage, sympathy, and grief to bring up what is wrong with society today, whether it be the issue on guns or the inequality in punishment or the quality of safety in the public education system. Nevertheless, whenever a school shooting has occurred in the past, these issues have been reopened and reexamined, but never with any real results or long-lasting impact. After the recent shooting, devastating many, there has suddenly been a wake-up call to those who have consistently been putting this issue to rest. The Florida Senates temporary ban on AR-15 proposal seems to be the closest we have ever gotten to resolving the issue of gun control. The fact that it was overturned 15 minutes after the ban shows that we still have a long way to go before there are any real results within this.

They say that 2 out of 3 adults in the US want stricter gun laws, but that 1 out of 3 adult doesn’t seem to be giving any valid reasons for the justification of freedom with guns. Furthermore, our very own President doesn’t seem to be aiding in either direction. Donald Trump comments, “if they get in, they will repeal your tax cuts, they will put judges in that you wouldn’t believe, they’ll take away your second amendment, which we will never allow to happen.”  It is obvious he is referring to Democrats and liberals and their stance on the issue. Trump’s view on the second amendment, however, does not seem to be backed by any fair argument or belief. Does he actually care if we lose our right to bear arms, or does he just need the approval of the NRA? The latter seems to have been proposed by Denis Slattery of the New York Times, and would not be completely disregarded.

What am I saying? I think the United States Government should take initiative in this matter and not just sit idle while more and more innocent students die. It is obvious that guns do not equal school shootings. Hell, even Trumps idea that where there are no guns will attract killers could be taken into consideration, however severe it may sound.  Nonetheless enacting any kind of laws that limit the unnecessary use of them will ensure at least a little more protection. A little more security. A little less tragedy and a little more…peace.

Featured Image via Wikimedia