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Culture > News

“This Needs To Be The Turning Point”

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Georgia Southern chapter.

It’s only February and there have been 18 school shootings in the US. 

Only 7 of those did not result in death or injury.

Seventeen people were killed in the most recent tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in South Florida.

We want to know… why are politicians just sitting on their hands about this?

We can all easily agree that even one school shooting is one too many, but why is this time different? The survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have had enough. No one can begin to imagine what these students had to go through, but thanks to their bravery we can almost feel their pain. This is the start of an unprecedented student movement.

“I hope the American public takes action. We’ve sat around too long being inactive in our political climate and as a result, children have died. It’s time to take action and hold our elected officials responsible and if our elected officials aren’t willing to stand up and say I’m not going to continue to take money from the NRA because children are dying, they shouldn’t be in office because children are dying. This is a midterm year and this is the change that we need” – David Hogg

 

“We’re losing our lives while the adults are playing around” – Cameron Kasky

 

These are quotes from two Stoneman Douglas survivors who decided that being silent about their ordeal will only allow for it to be forgotten about.

 

Thanks to social media, outsiders got to witness the tragedy from the perspective of the survivors. Students from the high school took to Twitter to control the narrative and advocate for change. This generated such huge response from politicians and political commentator alike. At this point, there’s no doubt in my mind the twitter is shaping new age politics. Before we get to the heart of the message, let’s see how politicians (and Tomi Lahren) took to Twitter to respond to terror attacks.

 

Versus mass shooting attacks

Can you spot the difference? There’s obviously a clear difference in tone about each tragedy, but why?

 

This is the heart of the message, Why aren’t school shootings considered an act of terrorism by some politicians? Why isn’t there a bigger push for change after a domestic terrorist attack? Is domestic terrorism even a real thing? Not when you’re a “troubled kid from a broken home”. The US Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” Therefore, half of it stems from America’s knowingly races reputation and the other half stems from Our failure to act. Seems to me and to many others that the only real difference between terrorism and mass shootings is that we have the power to prevent mass shootings but can’t ever admit fault. This is a recurring theme in American history and this generation wants to know Where is the turning point. Today have the power to make a difference for tomorrow, take notice and take action. Why does Congress not act? There are people being slaughtered and the only argument I have heard so far is that owning a gun is an American right. Well, my rebuttal is,  the right to live should be the number one priority right now.

 

To all the survivors, I respect your courage and determinism. We are fighting with you!

 

Current senior at the Georgia Southern University. I love music (mostly 90's), and I love movies (mostly horror). In my spare time, I like to pretend I know how to dance or I'll watch post production videos on youtube :)
Jordan Wheeler

Georgia Southern '22

Jordan Wheeler is a Junior Pre-Law Philosophy major who attends Georgia Southern. Jordan loves writing, singing, and hanging out with friends.