Let's Talk March for our Lives
- Katy McQuillan
- Mar 26, 2018
- 2 min read
Saturday morning, Washington D.C. was flooded with millions of people from all walks of life using their voices for a cause they are passionate about.
The purpose for this march was to advocate for children's lives all across America and to say "enough to enough" on gun violence.
What's the problem with this activism? Nothing. Wanting a change on gun violence is not bi-partisan or political. No one should feel like their safety is jeopardized on an average day living their life. No child should feel unsafe sitting in English class learning about commas.
Here is what is important to remember:
1. America was founded on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which includes the First Amendment and the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is based solely on protection.
2. Those who follow the Second Amendment and legally buy guns only purchase them for protection and are not contributing to the firearm violence. The people who are using firearms illegally are the problem. You have heard it a thousand times, it's a people problem, not a gun problem.
3. Criminals don't care about laws. They don't follow laws, they don't care about law enforcement. They don't care who they hurt or what it takes. Period. End of story.
4 - Part 1. Wanting to protect children at schools may or may not mean using the Second Amendment right we, as a country, have been granted. It all comes down to training, gun safety and knowledge. This doesn't mean teachers in every classroom need to be armed and bullet-proof vested. All I'm saying is if the school has some sort of security -- a campus police officer, a student resource officer, a county sheriff who is assigned to the school -- who is seriously willing to do their job, the American education system may have a little more protection for their students.
4 - Part 2. The Parkland shooting campus had a sheriff assigned to their school who did not act during the massacre. There was a Maryland shooting last week whose student resource officer stopped the shooter and thankfully, not many were injured in that occurrence. Unfortunately, there were two students who were injured and one of those students passed away later. That being said, if the security is truly willing to do their job, at all costs, there may be less violence.
5. As refreshing as it is for young people to be informed on the latest issues, it is crucial to be informed on the facts instead of spewing opinionated hot takes. Nothing productive comes out of getting on television and bashing what America stands for without knowing the facts.
I'm not sure if the debate on the Second Amendment or gun violence will go away any time soon. However, it may be easier to know the facts if we knows the laws, stay informed on what the government is doing, listen to what lawmakers say and respectfully hear the concerns of all parties.
(If you would like to learn about a few mild addictions students in college deal with, click here.)
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