At Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14th, students showed up ready to share valentine’s, see their friends, maybe tell that special someone how they felt, and get in some learning. Teachers brought their supplies and planned their lessons, dropped their own kids off at school that morning, and went to go do their jobs. Just another normal day at a normal high school, made slightly special thanks to the holiday.
However, these kids could never have anticipated the horrors this day, meant for celebrating and spreading love, would bring them. And for 17 of these people, they could not have shown up to school that morning knowing it would be their last.
Students and teachers were gunned down in the halls by Nikolas Jacob Cruz, who previously attended the school. Without hesitation, he walked inside the building carrying deadly weapons and used them on the students and teachers at the school in what would be one of the world’s largest school massacres.
17 people’s lives, filled with family, friends, and futures, were destroyed that day, and as horrific and devastating as it is, these kinds of events have become a weekly occurrence in this country. As of February 15th, there are have been 18 school shootings since the beginning of the year. This averages to roughly three a week. Let that sink in. Three times per week in America, someone takes a gun into a school full of innocent children and teachers. By that math, we are looking at over 150 school shootings that might take place this year alone.
This. Is. Not. Normal.
In other countries, strict laws were put in place to keep this from happening (something many Americans do not believe will work). Thanks to laws like these, Australia has not had a mass shooting since 1996, and Japan sees as little a six gun-related deaths a year. And yet, what steps has the U.S. taken to ensure this won’t happen again? To keep our children and teachers safe?
The answer to that would be nothing. In fact, the American Government does not even do any research or studies into gun violence as the National Rifle Association has opposed all movements toward that. There is also no legislation or movements in our government to fix this issue. This essentially means that our government has chosen to accept that school shootings are an unfortunate consequence of having guns in our country and are choosing to protect those guns over our children.
But these students do not agree with the government’s decision. Since the Florida shooting almost a week ago, students and teachers all over the country have rallied to protest guns and the government, and there is even word that students (and some teachers) are planning a full-on walkout on April 20th, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
They are done being told their lives aren’t as important as guns and done being ignored by their government. They are demanding change, and hopefully, change will come.
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