As I sit writing this, I see a post by my grandfather on Facebook that catches my eye. A bit of background information about my grandfather; we agree on two things: that there is air, and that we breathe it. That is the extent of it.
He re-posted a photo describing how there were no school shootings in his time because the pledge of allegiance was recited every day, because they read from the bible and prayed at school, and they had the ten commandments on the wall. The conclusion was that because we are rejecting the institutions previously in place, that we somehow brought school shootings onto ourselves.
It is because of people like my grandfather that we have this insensitivity in our nation towards the victims of these school shootings. They say ignorance is bliss, but ignorance is also the hindrance of progress. When life is complacent nothing will ever change. For some, this is a thought of peace, but for us, that know the truth, humankind has not advanced without rebellion. Disobedience is progress, and conformity is stagnation.
Times have changed, and society has changed with it, and we are now fighting against the institution of guns. Guns have changed drastically since the simple musket, and no person needs a semi-automatic or automatic weapon to protect themselves against the government or an intruder.
Military-style weapons are meant for one thing, and one thing only: to kill as many people as you can as quickly as you can. We are not asking to take away anyone's constitutional right to bear arms, but we are advocating for real-constructive gun-control legislation.
I would like to point out, the statement previously made earlier stated that us, students, somehow asked for this kind of violence to be transgressed unto us. Well, I would like to say that us, students, who have no control over the politics, have never asked, since Columbine, for 187,000 of our fellow students to be exposed to gun violence in schools.
We, students, are judged, ridiculed, shamed, and talked-down for speaking our minds. We, students, are looked down for expressing ourselves. We, students, are seen by our elders as wrong for being different.
Although, we, students, are going to deal with the effects of their mistakes. We, students, are exposed to dangers that we hold no responsibility for causing.
We, students, are shot at for no apparent reason other than to cause chaos. We, students, are the blame for their problems because we, the students, have lost our “moral code." We, students, are the victims of their lethargy to take action. We, students, are going to make a change if they don’t, and for us, that happens today.
