More guns not the answer

KAYLEIGH WRIGHT

Year 12, South Otago High School

RECENTLY, pupils around the world have been taking a stand for tighter gun laws in schools.

This has come about after a recent school shooting in the United States at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people and injuring more than 15 others.

This shooting has caused a huge controversial debate in America, about whether or not a teacher should be armed with weapons in an event of a school shooting.

I strongly believe a teacher should not be armed with guns because pupils and school staff are meant to feel safe in a school environment, not threatened by teachers who are carrying a firearm.

How would teachers really feel about carrying a firearm and being responsible for 30 or so young people?

Adding more guns is not going to solve this problem. More guns are going to hurt more people.

If you want to put out a fire, you don’t add more wood because that would ignite the fire even more.

You use water to put it out.

If you add more of what the problem is, you are not going to get a better outcome.

What would happen if the gun ends up in the wrong hands?

We will have an even bigger mess. The teachers are in schools to teach, not to kill someone in an event of a school shooting.

American gun laws need to be tighter, and I believe making guns less accessible to the general public will reduce the shootings.

In New Zealand, firearm laws are heavily restricted, and to own a handgun each individual must be approved and registered by the New Zealand Police.

Nobody can legally buy a gun without a firearms license.

The license process is long and complicated and includes completing a firearm safety course.

The long, boring complicated process of owning a gun in New Zealand is saving lives, and we have a notable lack of shootings in schools.

This is very different from the United States where shootings are a fear for a lot of young people.

The New Zealand firearmrelated death rate is 2.66 per 100,000 people per year, whereas the rate in America is almost five times that.

I believe there is not enough education about gun control in America. People need to know the consequences of guns and what they’re capable of doing.

Young pupils of Stoneman Douglas High School have recently found out the consequences of what a gun can do in the wrong hands.