This is just a bit of perspective. People like to quote an article that said there were 18 school shootings within the two months of 2018, well does a bullet accidentally going through a school count as a school shooting? If yes, there were 18 school shootings. While school shootings are terrifying and evil, trying to find a single source to blame is immature and dangerous. People love to blame guns, and by extension, they want to get rid of them. I personally LOVE guns, they are so much fun to shoot and the feeling of security that comes with holding a gun is unparalleled. Defending your home or your rights with an Armalite Rifle 15 (AR 15)is great, but against a military with a 600 billion dollar budget, no magazine capacity can save you. You own a gun because you love guns, not because you want to defend your rights. It is easy to blame guns, mental health, or the NRA, but the problem of school shootings isn’t anyone of these. It is a product of the way our society functions. The bullying and discrimination in schools, the astonishingly low price of guns, lack of funding for mental health patients. This all has led to an astronomic rise in the number of mass shooters. These people are the byproduct of schools valuing conformity over creativity, a society that values competition over compassion, and a country that values individual rights over general welfare. If we want to end school shootings, we need to begin to make well-informed decisions and change legislation to make our schools safe, not walk out of our 2nd periods for 17 minutes.

 On February 14, 2018, nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz decided to turn a day of love into a day of mourning. Cruz is being charged with first-degree murder for his Valentine’s Day rampage, which impacted 34 students and their families at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — 17 of whom are now dead.

The debate about gun control is stuck in an endless loop, with no visible end in sight. It is time to stop talking, and take action. The National Rifle Association (NRA) will not back down and is supported by the many politicians (on both sides of the aisle) that the organization has supported and successfully elected into office to serve their agenda. Proper security measures, like a ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15 used by Cruz, limits on high capacity magazines, as well as a legal buying age for purchasing firearms, could have prevented this horrific event.
It is horrifying that even after hundreds of families have been affected by tragedies like Columbine, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, and the Orlando nightclub for years, nothing has been done to stop gun violence. Instead, our politicians are willing to sign a bill that will allow school personnel to have loaded guns on school campuses. The thought of arming teachers to protect students is flawed and could lead to the loss of more innocent lives.

I believe that we students, who are the future of this country, have the power to bring about real change. Although we may not be old enough to vote, we can still influence our friends and families to vote for politicians who have the courage to do the right thing instead of serving special interest groups. We have to do everything we can to ensure a safer future not only for our children but for future generations to come.

It has happened again: another school shooting. It saddens and sickens me to see that a place where young minds are taught the skills and knowledge to live happily later on in the real-world can be the same place where dreams of this future world can be cut short. It is clear to see that something needs to be done, but where is the action?

Too often do we simply ignore these problems, because it is easier to pretend that everything is fine and things will be okay. But everything is not okay. Everything is not fine. There is shooting after shooting, and we have gone numb to headlines like “26 people killed, 2 injured.” Thinking about how it only took one person to end the lives, dreams, and potential of many beautiful individuals is heartbreaking. And now, violence has happened again. But compared to the past, something different has been going on now. A movement has started. It is incredible how the #NeverAgain movement has now become nationwide and that even students at Lynbrook are involved. This gives me hope that maybe change can finally be made.

Over the past few weeks, gun violence has been a hot topic of discussion on campus and on social media. As I talked to more people, and read various articles online each with a different viewpoint on this issue, I began to form my own opinion.

When asked the question “Why do you need a gun?” people’s answer is often that they need it for protection. But, the real question is “Who are they protecting themselves from?”. Most often the answer is other people with guns. When people purchase a gun, they agree to an underlying agreement that they won’t be afraid to use it, in a time of need, to take another human being’s life.

While I was wondering what could cause gun abuse, I realized that as when our society moved on to a digital world, it exposed people to gun violence in the form of video games, television and movies. With more than half of all American children growing up playing video games, they are witnesses to environments of destruction, where the sole method of survival is killing others. Video games allow players to reset and start over, giving them multiple “lives”, making our population insensitive to issues such as death at a very young age

There are countries that have strict gun laws, and so deaths related to gun violence in those countries are less than 10 each year. Whereas, here in the U.S. we have lost 17 children in just one shooting. It is sad to see almost no amends being made despite the requests after the tragedy.