Seeing only hypocrisy in safety debate
As a senior in high school, 18 years old, education is all I’ve known for the last 14 years. Go to school, my mother tells me, Go to school and learn. Learn, so you can do great things. Education is a pathway — an opportunity to escape our situation. Like millions of other students in the United States, these are words ingrained in us like no other. For so many, education is an escape, a ladder to climb out of poverty and struggle.
School: A place one goes to educate. To grow. To learn. To become individuals who will one day go into society and help create a better future, whatever path they choose to pursue. This is what school is supposed to be. A safe haven, a sanction of protection for so many children with great dreams and aspirations and potential.
Yet the greatest tragedy is the one that has become reality. Now, there are students — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions — who fear for their life each morning when they arrive at the very place supposed to be a barrier from the outside world, where they can emerge themselves in studies and endless knowledge.
I am going to be blunt. There is nowhere to hide, and we should not try to hide from the issue and the root of the issue in the first place. This country has a gun issue. More specifically, an issue with gun control. Or rather, the lack of it in 21st century America. Myself and thousands of others — civilians, politicians, teachers, youth, families, Americans — demand change now. This cannot and will not continue. This can no longer be the horrific reality that millions of students are subjected to every day.
We need to create and ensure a nation in which our students go to school and learn chemistry formulas and math equations, perform science experiments, explore their artistic passions — not a nation that trains its students to become familiar with the fear that courses through them when the classroom lights shut off and the blaring alarm begins, when they are forced to hide under their desks or against the wall, when piercing gunshots drill through the air. But the latter is reality. We are making a problem we are responsible for solving into one for children and youth to bear the burden of.
Imagine a world when parents fear sending their child to school. Imagine the fear in them as they kiss their kid goodbye, watch them go on the bus, having to merely ponder the thought that they might not make it home alive. But you do not have to imagine. This is reality.
I call on the lawmakers who turn a blind eye to this horrific injustice to create and pass stricter gun laws that make it harder to legally purchase a firearm. In the United States, the federal law states that one can, (1) pass a quick background check that only considers criminal convictions, domestic violence and immigration status, and (2) buy a gun. When purchasing from a private seller, federal law does not require a background check. Why is it so easy for just anyone to get their hands on a deadly weapon?
If we take a look at other countries in the world — Japan, for instance — the law is:
⏩ one must take a firearm class and pass an exam
⏩ get a doctor’s note to verify mental health apply for a firing permit
⏩ interview with police pass an in-depth background review
⏩ apply for a gunpowder permit
⏩ take a firing class
⏩ obtain a certificate
⏩ buy a gun safe and ammunition locker
⏩ allow police inspection
⏩ ass another background review
⏩ purchase a gun.
With this law in place, Japan has almost completely eliminated gun deaths—a country with a population of 127 million, less than 10 per year on average.
Now let us compare this to the U.S. Six months into 2022, we’ve had 27 school shootings. For shooting fatalities alone in this country, the number has been 17,000 since the start of 2022.
The first step is to open our eyes and become aware of this problem. It will not disappear if we are mere witnesses. We cannot stand on the sidelines and watch injustice pass by us until it sweeps us up in its storm. There must not be any more grief, loss, pain and tragedy over gun violence in schools. Schools must be what they are meant to be: A place to obtain an education. An opportunity for students all over to rise above their circumstances and backgrounds. A pathway to chase dreams and aspirations.
There must be no more innocent lives lost because we choose to ignore the blatant wrong in front of us.
To lawmakers: If you are so concerned with protecting the people, then listen to this. Hear us. Whose lives are you trying to protect with the Second Amendment? By allowing U.S. citizens to bear arms, you do so with the intent to keep them safe. But if we do not amend this outdated amendment, you are letting thousands of people die — the very same people you claim you want to keep safe. You are letting them fear for their lives, and for the lives of all those they love.
I only see hypocrisy.