After Florida shooting, follow the teenagers
Faced with the unimaginably heartbreaking reality of seeing friends and teachers murdered in front of them, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have turned their grief into positive action. I am here for it.
Like macabre clockwork, the conspiracy theorists and patronizing NRA shills came out in force almost immediately. They’ve called the teens speaking truth to power everything from “crisis actors” to dumb kids who are being used by adults for partisan ends.
The great thing, though, is that the students in question couldn’t care less. They’re focused on getting something done. When you’ve lived your whole life in a nation that refuses to do anything about gun violence in your own schools — when adults have failed so spectacularly — there’s no other option but to revolt.
We’ve raised this generation on dystopian fiction about teenagers overthrowing authoritarian and uncaring leaders. Donald Trump is basically a less articulate President Snow from “The Hunger Games.”
So far, the students have done more to advance the gun control debate, and the cultural discussion around violence and patriarchy, than anyone in recent memory. They’ve walked out of classes, marched, spoken up, and most importantly, they’ve organized. On March 24, they’ll descend on the Washington, D.C., to demand action. In November, a large cohort of them will be old enough to vote, and they will.
They’ve faced down senators, such as Florida’s Marco Rubio, who tried to mealy-mouth his way around unquestioning loyalty to the gun lobby.
The students have raised an impressive sum of money.
They know that the answer isn’t to turn schools into prisons, locking people in their classrooms, arming teachers, hiring more armed guards and adding more metal detectors. The answer isn’t more guns, or more stigmatization of people with mental illness. We need to focus on immediate policy changes and long-term cultural shifts.
Immediate: Implement universal background checks for all gun purchasers, which is supported by 97% of Americans. Ban the purchase of AR-15 and similar assault-type weapons. Close the gun show loophole. Lift the funding moratorium on federal funding of gun violence research so we can find evidence-based solutions.
Longer term: Restore the funding and support for people with mental illness that began to wane decades ago but was accelerated under President Reagan. Pass the ERA already (yes, it’s related). Start the hard conversations about how we raise children: allow boys to be sensitive and kind, teach all kids to respect their own boundaries and the boundaries of others, dismantle the ideas of rigid binaries and toxic masculinity that are so tied up in the angry, entitled attitudes of men who commit violence (whether rogue or state-sanctioned). Let more women, and women of color (who have had to deal the most personally with patriarchal violence for centuries) lead the way.
And, follow the children. Emily Mills is a freelance writer who lives in Madison. Email: emily.mills@outlook.com