With me almost turning 20, I have seen friends and family get killed from gun violence. As a kid growing up, I wasn’t knowledgeable on how serious the problem of gun violence was. I just thought it was relevant in wars and in gang violence. (The type of gang violence you see on TV). It wasn’t until when I had left a great elementary school in the District of Columbia to go to a neighborhood middle school in Maryland when I had realized this. My new friends had friends that had passed away from gun violence and I couldn’t quite grasp it. It was almost like all of them knew had a connection to someone that had died from gun violence. The students in that school had informed of neighborhood rivalries and gang violence. All this was new to me but I soon adjusted and became adapted to hearing the next crazy story. It wasn’t until 10th grade where someone I was friends with had passed. This was the day that I realized that “making it too see 18” was a real thing.
When I first transferred to Thomas Johnson Middle School, I made about four friends the first week. We were all in the same first period class. Their names were Manquel Lucas, Terek Ross, Jason Anderson, and Christopher Smith. We used to laugh and get kicked out of class all the time. Three years later, everybody went separate ways and I got a text in class that had said Chris had died from gunshot wounds. I couldn't believe it. Neither could anyone else that was friends with him. The question that I’m still left with during this day was “is it worth it”?
Is taking someone’s life worth ruining yours. In some cases, you can justify it but in many others the justification of taking someone’s life is not worth it. Many present-day homicides in the District of Columbia are usually purposeless. There was this one case where two blood brothers that were about twenty-two years old got into a fight and one killed the other. The fight led to a shootout. And he killed his own brother. The reason being is because his girlfriend cheated on one brother with another. Any drama over a female is probably pointless. But to kill your blood brother over a female is on another level.
Recently my eyes have been open to pointless homicides. I believe that the lack of communication and the inability to solve problems non-violently leads to a huge percentage of homicides. The belief of having a gun makes you tough is pretty much flawed and probably the opposite. If you’re going to try to settle something, the most one should ever do is fight but don’t pick up weapons because it is cowardly. Although fighting, still doesn’t solve the problem it gets the anger out and it should be left at that. Fighting should probably be the last resort.
