On Valentine’s Day, 17 people including students and faculty were slaughtered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As a result, their House of Representatives was in session on Tuesday February 20, 2018 according to NPR, to discuss the banning of assault weapon sales. However, their resolution was not aimed at firearms, but rather, was a declaration of pornography as a public health risk.
And all I have to ask is, how can these lawmakers have the audacity to overlook what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas? This is obviously not the first time, although I do hope it will be the last. According to a recent study, there are more mass shootings in the U.S than anywhere else in the world. This is because assault weapons can be bought out by essentially anyone 18+. Most states require a license to carry, but there are also a lot of states where no permit is required to handle a firearm. Even if a person may be licensed, it does not mean they may be qualified to shoot one. I think the biggest problem we face is actually allowing citizens to buy assault rifles. Why? Why do normal citizens need assault weapons? I can understand a small handgun, but I really cannot wrap my mind around the need for an AR-15 rifle.
The Second Amendment may say, “The right to bear arms,” but why do we have to follow such an old document? Times change, society changes, so the constitution should shift with us. Gun control is not about restricting the purchase of all guns, but the ones that are truly dangerous and only needed in battle. People like us, who are not in the military, simply have no use for these killing machines.
Let’s just pause everything and start talking about gun control. Since 2012, there has been the Aurora shooting, Sandy Hook, Pulse nightclub, Las Vegas concert, and now the Florida high school shooting. There’s a pattern of worrying and the need to talk about gun control in the following weeks of the shootings, but after a month or so, everything seems to be swept under a rug and forgotten. I really hope that the students who are protesting right now will be that voice that we need to have gun control in the U.S. #NeverAgain