Photo by: LaShauna Bell
What Happened?
On Wednesday February 14, nineteen-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and went off on a shooting spree that took the lives of seventeen people. Cruz used a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle along with smoke bombs to draw students out of the classroom in a simulated fire.
This is not the first mass shooting this year, and based on current patterns, it will not be the last. According to CNN, from Jan 1- Nov 5 of 2017, there were 307 mass shootings in the United States alone. This is an American issue. We have one of the highest of rates of gun violence in the developed world.
Cruz was able to purchase his gun legally because he passed the FBI background check. This is an issue in and of itself because Cruz had been flagged and reported to the FBI after posting threatening comments on YouTube videos, saying he was going to shoot up a school. The FBI dismissed his case because no physical action was taken until it was too late.
What do we do now?
1. Refine Background checks
These are the points that are checked on a current background check:
—Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
— Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence?
— Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any other depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?
— Are you a fugitive from justice?
— Have you ever been committed to a mental institution?
This does not look at threats made, suspicious activity that doesn’t end in arrest, or a person’s psychological state unless they’ve been institutionalized which is an extreme. Nor does it look at cognitive disabilities or degree of severity. There are people I know who have refused mental treatment because they worry it will interfere with their purchase of a gun. Suicide by firearm is the highest and most effective method of suicide with 51% of suicides in 2016 being carried out by firearms. By creating a more comprehensive background check and a longer waiting period for guns, we can hopefully decrease the number of unstable people owning guns.
2. No more private sellers.
If you do not regularly sell guns you do not need a permit to sell them. If you buy a gun at a gun show, a background check is not required, not even the imperfect one we have now. This opens up the opportunity for dangerous people to own firearms that, like the AR-15, can take out a lot of people in a short amount of time. If you are going to sell a gun in any capacity, you should need a permit to ensure you are doing so legally. If you are going to buy a gun in any capacity you should be required to take a background check and a gun safety course. And while I’ve heard they’re good for pig hunting, automatic rifles should not be available to private citizens. They do much more harm than good. The loss of human life is much more devastating than an unsuccessful hunting trip.
Also, people tend to want guns so they can prevent violence from happening. However, in most mass shooting, the perpetrator either kills themselves or is taken down by an officer of the law. We don’t need more untrained, armed citizens. We need less resources for these criminals, and more highly trained, careful, and unbiased law enforcers to keep our community safe.
3. Make your voice heard.
Do not let this mass shooting or any other slide by as just another day. Speak up. Donate to the victims or to gun violence prevention coalitions. And most importantly, call your representatives and demand change. We don’t need to take all guns away, we just need to be smart about how we use them and who gets the privilege to handle one.
You can find your representatives here: https://whoismyrepresentative.com/
And here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Sources: https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/health/mass-shootings-in-america-in-charts-and-graphs-trnd/index.html