We need gun control because Sandy Hook is my flashbulb memory. They say many people will never forget where they were or what they were doing when they first heard about the terrorist attacks on 9/11. For me, I’ll never forget where I was or what I was doing when I first heard about the Sandy Hook school shooting.
I was in seventh grade; I had just gotten into my mom’s car with my sister and friend after drama club practice when she told us what had happened. I could not even process it. Up until that point in my life, I had never understood why we had lockdown drills in school. I had a party to go to that night, but I didn’t even want to go. I just kept crying the whole time I was getting ready every time I thought about the people who died and the families and friends they had left behind.
We need gun control because I was so anxious going to school for the rest of middle school after that. I would get so nervous getting on the bus that I would feel nauseous almost every morning. I would text my mom “I love you, have a good day” from the bus every morning and would tiptoe into my parents’ room every morning and hug my half-asleep dad goodbye, afraid I wouldn’t have another chance to tell them.
We need gun control because every time I heard the word “lockdown” over the loudspeakers at school my hands would start shaking, immediately picturing the worst case scenario. Teenagers should not even have the thought of not coming home from school cross their minds. Fear has no place in our schools. Violence has no place in our schools.
We need gun control because it is unacceptable that people die on a near daily basis due to gun violence. In 2017, close to 40,000 people died from guns in the United States, the most in the past 50 years. The rate of children killed by guns in the U.S. is 36.5 times the overall rate observed in other high-income countries.
We need gun control because guns do kill people. There is no reason anyone should have access to military grade weapons, nevermind people with mental illnesses. It has been 20 years since Columbine and the U.S. currently has close to one mass shooting per day and the government has done nothing to help.
We need gun control because the FIT shooter threat was almost my worst nightmare come to life.
We need gun control because I am tired of feeling completely powerless to these tragedies. I am tired of waiting for the government to do something. I am tired of seeing other countries pass stricter gun legislation while the U.S government does nothing.
We need gun control because our initial reaction after every shooting is “Again?”. This should not be the norm. We can not continue to be desensitized to these horrific acts of violence. We can not and will not allow this to be our reality.
We need gun control because we deserve to live our lives without fear of violence. We can not continue to live like this. We can not continue to die like this.