Ever since the shooting in San Bernadino, my Facebook feed has been filled with opinions on the gun debate. Nothing I read is new information. It’s just the same people taking the same sides on the issue and refusing to see one another’s viewpoints. Now quite honestly, I think that it’s awful that in the wave of grief, we decide to turn tragedy into a political agenda, but sadly, that’s the state in which we live. I think this shows how ready we are for change. At the root of this all, no one wants to see innocent lives taken. And everyone wants to feel safe.
I definitely have an opinion on the debate. Just as much as everyone, I want to feel safe. I want my family and friends to feel safe. And I don’t think that putting a ban on weapons will help the issue. As I was thinking about this issue, I couldn’t help but think of "The Hunger Games" trilogy and some similarities between this debate and the fictional world of Panem.
I’m pretty sure that anyone who has read or watched "The Hunger Games" can agree that living in a world like Panem would not be a good thing. Sacrificing children to remind the society of the horrors of death and killing is not a good solution by any means. But, I think this society is where we are headed if we are not careful.
Obviously I don’t think we are anywhere near this scary future yet, but I think using the comparison to the book series can put the issue in terms that the rest of us can understand.
In Panem, the capital controls everything. The poor cities on the outskirts have no freedom and no rights. They also don’t own guns like the peacekeepers do. The citizens have outdated weaponry to hunt and scavenge with, but they mostly live in fear of the higher powers and rely on the government to provide basic protection needs.
In "The Mocking Jay: Part 2," when all of the capital citizens were walking to the capital to take refuge in President Snow’s house, they were trusting that the government could solve all of their problems, because they had no means to provide for themselves.
The simple act of taking away weapons sends the message, “The government will take care of all of your problems. It will defend you.” On one end, that can be a sense of security for people. But at the end of the day, it's just the reverse of empowerment. It is honestly degrading. It shows people that they can’t even defend themselves.
I think this entire gun debate might be a reflection of our generation too. People complain about millennials feeling entitled. We reflect this attitude when we say that we want guns to be banned for safety reasons. We feel entitled to have our government take care of us, protect us, and take away all of our problems.
It’s time to think past the moment, though. In a futuristic setting, if we take away guns from citizens now, we are only creating a society where we rely completely on the government. And when that breaks down, there will be mass chaos, because we were never given the opportunity to take care of ourselves.
The way I see it, we have two options. There will be evil in our world. It will never leave. And that is tragic. But, we can choose to prepare ourselves—to feel empowered by our sense of freedom and opportunity to protect one another. Or, we can duck away from our problems and wait for them to come and torture us with no means to fight back.
