The right way to handle school shootings

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Going on throughout the country right now is an epidemic of school shooters leaving innocent children and teachers dying. There are walkouts and sit ins, people going to state legislators, and other forms of government that decide laws to change the way we allow people to buy weapons.

I understand what is happening in the country is horrible, and terrible, and action needs to be taken against it. But what is the right way to do these things?

It’s known that if you are under the age of 18 you can’t vote, so why does it matter that these young kids are out trying to raise awareness for this issue? I mean look what happened in Florida: over 100 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School went to their state legislature to get them to rewrite gun laws. But nothing happened, no difference was made, because these politicians aren’t going to listen to people that can’t vote. That’s why it’s up to older generations who can vote to explore all the ways to make schools safer for kids.

Now what could be the right way of going about stopping these mass shootings and incidents? Well, it’s been suggested that we should make it illegal for people to have AR-15s or any sort of machine gun caliber rifles. But last time I checked drugs are illegal and yet people that want to do drugs still do drugs. I’m not trying to say that law enforcement isn’t doing their very best to try and stop this behavior. It’s just when there is so much of this going on you can’t stop it. So I feel if we take guns out of lawful people’s hands then we will leave them defenseless to the will of unlawful people, who will go out of their way to obtain these high powered rifles at any coast.

It’s also important to note that arming teachers could be a solution to the problem. But the fear of knowing teachers have guns isn’t going to stop mass shooters because most are on a suicide mission. Some even do it for the attention, especially in the time we live in now. If a person shoots up a school everyone in the country will know about it, and that’s the attention that they want. That’s where social media needs to play a role in not even paying attention to the shooter and only the victims that way people can mourn. Not giving the shooter any attention will also allow people to focus more on the repercussions of the incident and show all the pain and sorrow instead of how many people now know this shooters name.

Finally, my most important point is the fact that we need to take both sides into consideration. Have a collaborative plan that involves arming certified teachers and maybe having a school resource officer too. These people could be the second plan of action or the backup plan in the instance of your preventive measures not working. While we can also focus on applying metal detectors in the schools and having better lock down procedures, we could also take the initiative of counselors showing the consequences of these actions at a young age to keep people from wanting to pursue these tasks. We could also teach gun safety, because people need to know how to handle weapons and need to know what they can do. Look at Finland, for instance. They have the a low percentage of gun violence, and after they graduate high school they are entered into the military for two years. After their service they receive their own rifle. So them having educated people with guns lowers their gun violence.

In conclusion, the time is now to raise awareness for these issues and to to try and stop or lower the likeliness of future events. This lies on the shoulders of our politicians and other people in power. Step up and make some sort of decision. Make a choice and run with it. Show people that you are trying to help the country. That’s all anyone wants to see.