Americans, We Need To Admit We Have A Problem
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Americans, We Need To Admit We Have A Problem

"We have a problem in the United States, and until we admit that, we are going to continue experiencing extreme grief and mourning. We are going to continue losing students, teachers, friends, family, and people with bright futures. "

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Americans, We Need To Admit We Have A Problem
Associated Press

There's a lot of stuff floating around about the Parkland shooting. A lot of it is partisan argument. I would argue that that's the absolute last kind of discussion we should be having right now.

It has been 6 years since the Sandy Hook shooting, and it has been 19 years since the Columbine massacre. And yet, almost nothing has changed.

Living in Switzerland at the time, I remember the Sandy Hook shooting having a very "it-can't-happen-here" vibe. Imagining my school, such a safe space for me, with an active shooter inside was terrifying. I cried. My friends cried. Although we were from all over the world, we grieved right along with the Americans that had lost 20 first graders and a teacher. At the same time, we felt fortunate to know that such a tragedy was extremely unlikely ever to affect us.

People asked me at the time about why Americans prioritized access to semi-automatic weapons over the lives of children, and I argued that it was more complicated than that. It's not though, not really.

Fast forward three years: I was a senior in high school. Someone called a gun and ammo store near my high school and threatened the school. They said they were coming to shoot as many students as they could. The principal called and told us that, while the threat was being investigated, we would still have school. My friends and I wore clothes we thought we could run in. My chemistry teacher explained the plan if an active shooter were to enter the school during our double period class: we would go into the resource room, which had reinforced walls, and lock the door. She would lower a rope out of the window (which she kept for this purpose), we would shimmy down, and she would be the last one out. We were scared, and, though she never would have let on, she was too.

The fact that she had to create such a plan, and the fact that we had to be prepared to follow it, is startling and upsetting. That is neither a safe nor healthy learning environment. That's a learning environment riddled with fear. I am very fortunate never to have actually been in an active shooting situation, but I imagine that someone who has been in one would be constantly on edge in their school, or even scared to attend school. How would a person ever be expected to concentrate again, when they've seen their peers shot in the very same classrooms they attend every day? They shouldn't be.

It may surprise you to know that I actually agree that a gun can't do anything without a person behind it. It is true that a gun on a shelf or in a gun case is not inherently dangerous. Then again, Tide pods are not inherently dangerous. And yet, when the users began to pose a threat to themselves when using them, regulations were put in place. My favorite example is Kinder Eggs. Kinder Eggs are hollowed out chocolate eggs with toys in the middle, inside a large casing intended to look like a yolk. Though European children seem not to have any problem eating Kinder Eggs, apparently a few American children attempted to swallow them whole (they're egg-sized, so I'm not quite sure how this is possible, but it is) and choked on the toy. Kinder Eggs are now banned nationwide. And I can promise, guns have been used to kill far more children than Kinder Eggs have.

So yeah, guns may not be the problem. But just allowing ease of access to continue is clearly not the solution. It's not the solution in any other situation where a product causes deaths or dangers to users, at least to my knowledge.

The other argument that I have heard frequently is, "Well people still get alcohol before they're 21, and they still get Kinder Eggs, and they still get illegal drugs. They still do illegal things." But they get less. It makes it harder for them to do illegal things. And those products increase in price, meaning only the people who truly need those goods are generally able to afford them (though I cannot truly fathom a reason a person needs an AR-15). Increasing the opportunity cost of gaining access to semi-automatic weapons is pretty much the only solution we haven't tried. I hope I speak for all Americans when I say that almost anything is worth it, if it means saving innocent lives and making our schools more conducive to enjoyable learning.

Fear-laden learning environments should not be a reality in the United States, and yet they are. If lawmakers cannot find a way to recognize that funding by the NRA is not reason enough to continue placing innocent lives in jeopardy, then we have truly hit rock bottom. We have a problem in the United States, and until we admit that, we are going to continue experiencing extreme grief and mourning. We are going to continue losing students, teachers, friends, family, and people with bright futures.

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