High school and college students have been making waves all across the United States of America and around the world. These young men and women have drawn quite the following. There have been countless news reports, and stories about the movement March for Our Lives, but how many of them have been written by someone within the generation making the waves?
There has been praise for these young people, applauding their bravery and their will to fight for what they believe in and their desire to make the changes they want to see, happen. But I don't believe that brave is necessarily the right word to use here. Some of the people marching have been personally affected by gun violence in ways that many of us could never even imagine. There are hundreds of thousands of people marching and rallying in support of them. These people are scared, terrified, for their lives. They are doing this out of necessity. There needs to be a change, and they know that the change starts with them.
I would just like to start by saying, I’m proud of everyone I know that marched in DC in the March for Our Lives. Everyone who marched is fighting for things they should be guaranteed. Safety, security, happiness, and support. Children should not be afraid of going to school. They should not walk through the doors of a place of learning, fearful about whether or not they will return home. They shouldn't worry about their friends' and siblings' safety, or wonder not if, but when, the active shooter (lock out, lock in, and lock down) drills won't just be drills anymore.
How will we keep the children and the rest of the American public safe? Naturally, that's the following question. I believe the answer to this is relatively simple. There needs to be stricter regulation surrounding guns, the process needs to be made more in depth. Background checks and mental health screenings are needed in order to prevent people who should not have guns from having access to them. This would not prevent all of America from owning them, but would simply keep those who should not have them from owning them.
When you look at school shooters, you’ll find that most -- if not all -- were diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder that was either untreated or that the person decided to stop their treatment. Some were diagnosed after the shootings because they didn’t tell anyone about what they were thinking and feeling, often out of fear of retribution or judgement from adults or peers. The stigmas surrounding mental illness need to be dismantled, and there needs to be more restricted access to guns. Then maybe we wouldn’t have such a high rate of school shootings and children could go to school without the fear of them being killed in a place of learning.
