Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the March for Our Lives on Saturday, March 24th, but I still have an opinion, and this is where I’d like to share it.
I grew up in a safe, tight-knit community, one where everyone knows your name and one where major tragedy rarely strikes. I call it the bubble, in part because most of the terrible stuff we see on the news doesn’t penetrate my suburban hometown. But don’t most kids feel the same way, and shouldn’t it stay that way? The events that occurred at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School could have very well happened in my town too, or 986 miles away on my beautiful college campus. No one is immune to crisis. When our founders wrote the Constitution do you honestly think they anticipated the drastic changes that society has undergone over centuries? Of course not. They wrote the Second Amendment in response to a war in which they needed guns to fight their enemy. The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” At the time, guns were necessary for every person to protect themselves. Pitchforks may have stirred something up at home, but they certainly weren’t driving the British away. At that particular time, that clause was necessary because the people were the militia… farmers, blacksmiths, and business owners alike. But where we are now, in 21st century America, our citizens are not militia. We have an exemplary army, navy, marine corps, air force, local, state, and federal law enforcement; it is inexcusable any others should be able to obtain military level weaponry so easily. Yet, they do, and their response is that it’s their second amendment right. Well, in that case, it’s a right I prefer not to have.
The argument that the gun does not kill, the person behind it does, is valid and makes sense. However, we are allowing people easy access to guns, people who kill out of hate and rage, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the meaning behind the second amendment. It is not shocking that the United States has the highest rate of gun homicides. If we were to make it harder to obtain the weapon, these tragedies would stop happening. If you need proof, just ask the UK, Japan, or Australia. According to a New York Times article from October 2017, Marco Rubio received approximately $3.3 million in funding from the NRA. Now, Rubio defended taking donations from the NRA, stating that he has always supported the Second Amendment. Well, Mr. Rubio and others, maybe it’s time we don’t support the Second Amendment, as it was written in 1791. Maybe it’s time that we take a good look at our country and have an ‘oh shit’ moment before we lose one more person, especially one more child, to gun violence. My generation, the Millennial generation, is often criticized, but like many people my age, I was taught to stand up for what I believe in, to advocate for myself, to have a voice, and to use it for something good. I want to make a positive contribution to society instead of sitting around on the sidelines watching. So, we are doing what we’ve been taught to do, and we can be pretty stubborn, so don’t think we are going away anytime soon.