On Saturday, in many cities across the United States, mass crowds of children, young adults and those empathetic to the cause marched for stricter gun control laws. They called it the March For Our Lives. Yes, you read that right. This march was put together in response to the high number of school shootings the United States in hopes that Congress will reconsider the United States current laws on owning guns and military grade assault weapons. The question on most people’s mind is should Congress give in and place stricter laws or complete bans on guns? My answer is...kind of?
The United States has faced a strong sigma over a few decades of being number one in mass shootings in the world. A fact that University of Alabama’s Adam Lankford proved by gathering information on the number of school shootings in 171 countries. This isn’t a fact that sits well with the general public. At least, it shouldn't. The way that I see it is, for every 1 school or public mass shooting there are hundreds that are traumatized from it. The U.S. has hundreds of these events unfold which leaves hundreds of thousands traumatized. Not to forget about the mass amount of those who are not so lucky to escape from these tragedies. It all starts with an individual who has their hands on some sort of gun, usually a high powered assault weapon, and ends with them taking the lives of many. After the dust settles, a trend has come about. As the authorities search for the answers of why this person did what they did, they usually always settle with the fact that the person was mentally ill and at the time of the attack was not well.
Here is where congress needs to step in. We don’t need our guns taken away. Though these are the culprits that end lives, they also save them. Many people have guns for protection purposes. It's hard to try and tell people they need to give up something that they might have never used in their lives and only have for peace of mind because someone else decided to abuse the right. Another downfall if we decided to get rid of guns entirely is the fact that it is our second amendment right. If we were to start to repeal amendments in a time where our country is extremely divided who’s to stop them at just the second amendment. Those amendments carry serious freedoms like the fact we have a voice in society and we aren't still participating in slavery. I know this sounds ridiculous but honestly, if we fail to protect one amendment what is stopping people from going after all the others?
What is not helping in this situation is how quiet Congress is being. Let's call it like we see it, most of them are in cahoots with the NRA and to be quite honest, going against the NRA’s agenda is as scary as it sounds. You risk losing pretty much everything, your money, your place in Congress and honestly probably ever holding down a job again. So what is Congress to do? In my humble opinion, suck it up. Mass amount of kids are dying because of the lack of regulations on assault weapons. All Congress really has to do is put a few steps in place before you're able to purchase a weapon like a psych evaluation and maybe a provide a legitimate reason of purchase. And oh yeah, bring the age restriction up. Seriously? At 18 years old you can buy these weapons? You can’t even go to the bathroom without raising your hand at this age.
Let's discuss one more thing Congress needs to do. Mass tragedies are not always executed with highly powered assault weapons. Stabbings and other forms of mass murder occur frequently too. At the end they always discuss the persons mental illness. This should be on Congress’s radar. It’s sad but very real that many people suffer this severely from mental illness. So is there something that can be done? Yes, and this does not include shaming kids for not being more friendly to everyone at school. There is no written rule that you ever have to engage with people when you're merely a student. As a member of the staff however this is a requirement that needs to be a top priority. School staff members need to be trained in how to spot this, because trust me these kids are not hiding it 100 percent. Most importantly Congress needs to put real plans in place to offer proper counseling. Not the counselors that double as coaches or advisors. Real trained professionals need to be on campus available for whoever needs them and also actively trying to look out for people that may be under large amounts of mental stress. We have identified that mental illness is a real and large problem in the United States but have done little to nothing to try and help. Helping could be the difference between life and a lot of death in these not so rare cases.
