I had a fun post all planned about my favorite things of 2012 (a la Oprah), but that just seems silly and trivial in light of the events of yesterday. I'll save it for later when I'm less infuriated by the world.
Everyone has something to say about the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. I'm no different. Normally, I like to keep quiet about my political leanings, but I feel like this is an issue I am passionate enough about to risk losing a few Facebook friends or Twitter followers. So here goes.
Something has to change.
I was a freshman in college when a couple of jerks thought it would be fun to shoot up their high school. Columbine was enough to make me waver in my decision to become a high school teacher. What, exactly, was I getting into? I wanted to share my love of reading and writing with students, not deal with things like Code Lockdown and worry about which kids were exhibiting warning signs.
But still I pursued a future of teaching because I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
Fast forward to the Virginia Tech Massacre in 2007 when a mentally ill individual shot and killed 32 people. He took the time to write a manifesto to release to news stations, along with photos of him posing with firearms. He carefully planned the whole thing, knowing that he'd become a celebrity (albeit a much-hated one) for what he'd done.
I, along with everyone else, lamented the loss of life. I changed my Facebook picture to a black ribbon emblazoned with "VT." I worried about the direction of our society and whether I could remain a teacher with the constant nagging thought that someone could burst into my classroom at any time with a gun and start taking out my students. But I didn't do anything.
Five more years went by. I sold a few books, and technically I could probably quit teaching if I really wanted to. But I don't want to. I love discussing literature with my students and encouraging them to write things that really matter to them. Teaching is important to me. So I keep on teaching, even though it means juggling meeting my writing deadlines with critiquing my students' work.
Then yesterday.
I'm shocked. I'm disgusted. I'm outraged.
Like everyone, I'm wondering what could possess an individual to systematically shoot 20 defenseless kindergartners. But, really, it's pretty easy to figure out. Take a depressed kid who sees no future for himself, maybe someone who's gone through a lot of trauma in his own life. He's grown up on the internet and has probably visited forums where boys like himself--outcast, angry boys--glorify the aforementioned killers who translated their misery into action and left their mark, however ugly, on the world. The only problem was how did he top Virginia Tech? How could he shock a nation that's experienced countless shootings in the past months? Americans have become so desensitized to these events, we just shake our heads and say, "That's terrible." And go on with our business.
Hmmmmm. How about shoot some little kids?
I can't even articulate my revulsion for the person who made this decision, but I have no doubt he planned this down to the Facebook photo he posted last week, knowing it would be plastered all over the Internet soon.
You might notice that I haven't used the killer's name. Nor did I use the names of the Columbine or Virginia Tech shooters. Because that's what they want. Glory, fame. But instead of working hard and doing something positive in the world, they seek to destroy it and be forever remembered. They want us to dissect their pitiful lives and wonder where we went wrong, where we failed them.
I refuse.
But I'm not just changing my Facebook picture or posting some "RIP Sandy Hook Victims" sign and moving on. Not this time. Something has to change in our country, whether it's the gun laws or our treatment of mental health issues or the way we portray these events in the media.
Something has to be done. No, that's passive language.
I must do something.
You must do something.
We have to work together to figure out how to fix this, not let arguments about the right to bear arms obscure the fact that 20 children were brutally murdered yesterday. According to everything I've read, the guns were legally purchased by the killer's mother. I can't help but wonder, if the scumbag hadn't had easy access to firearms, would those kids be opening presents under the tree come Christmas Day?
This is a wakeup call. Are we going to hit the snooze button and wait for the next massacre?
Or are we going to admit that we have a problem and seek to find the solution?
How about this - What if the teachers had been allowed to carry a weapon for self defense? Maybe this guy A) would have been taken down before he could do damage, or B) thought twice about walking onto a campus knowing someone might shoot him first?
ReplyDeleteEveryone gets mad when these tragedies strike and shouts "Gun Control!" But those laws just prevent all the sane, good people from obtaining and carrying weapons. Bad, crazy people will and DO find guns and use them when they want to, and if they can't find a gun, they use a knife (ie. the recent school attack in China). The answer is not taking guns away from the billion plus normal people in this country in an attempt to prevent the nut jobs from killing someone, but to allow all of us the right to defend ourselves and our loved ones without fear of being thrown in jail for it.
Also, if you want to regulate something, why not regulate all the all-too-real murderous video games that encourage young people to enjoy violence, get them addicted to it, desensitize them to death. When we try to put limits on violent, hate-filled music, movies, games, books the "artists" shout "Freedom of Speech!" But when others shout "Right to Bear Arms!" they are criticized and blamed for the death of children.
Instead of trying fruitlessly to keep a gun out of the hands every crazy individual, an impossible task anyway even with gun control, how bout we encourage schools to have a paid armed security guard on campus? Malls have security guards. Office buildings have security guards. Why not our schools? And encourage schools to keep a loaded gun locked up in the office so if and when they need to protect the children, they don't have to wait for ten minutes for the cops to get there while the teachers lock themselves and the kids in bathrooms praying the bad guy doesn't shoot them first.
I'm of the opposite mind as Laurisa. I don't think more guns will solve anything. Personally, I think gun laws should be stricter not in that good people can't get them but that when someone goes to renew their gun license (and that should be every two years), they must also pass a psyche test and not have a criminal history. They must prove that they have a gun cabinet with a lock and that they are responsible (i.e. the psyche test).
ReplyDeleteI know that bad people are going to get guns. It's bound to happen. But if we make it harder for them to get them then all the better. Make the punishments much harsher for people caught with a weapon without a permit and the punishment much harsher for people caught buying guns and giving them away or stealing guns.
I work for a police department. Every time an officer comes in, he is carrying a gun but he is forced to be evaluated any time he must use the gun against another person. I can't tell you how many criminal histories I run that are 50 pages long and we find a weapon in their vehicle.
I'm with you on this one. We all have to step up and be more responsible about this. Something really does have to change.
I agree, Amber. We can't shoot our way out of this problem. Our culture has a mental health crisis and a weapon obsession that particularly affect our young men. These things need to be addressed.
DeleteAnd a "more guns" response or suggesting that teachers need to be either trained as law enforcement officials or encouraged to become vigilantes is an absurd way to take the conversation, considering that it is not safe to have loaded weapons in a room full of children at all. That conversation also distracts from more reasonable solutions to the problem, which might involve better mental health services, seeking out and dealing with the causes of violent mental illness, and making semi-automatic weapons (user-friendly mass killing devices) a lot more difficult and risky to obtain and own.
I hear the argument that shooters would get guns or other weapons anyway. That may be true in some cases, but when you put up barriers to access, you reduce the number of people who actually jump through those hoops successfully. I don't understand why we wouldn't save many lives just because we might not be able to save all the lives.
Also, I believe concealed carry training specifically discourages shooting in crowded areas or vigilantism. Carriers are instructed to wait for the police in a crowded situation because they are more likely to cause more chaos and death than to save the day. Concealed carry holders are not police, they aren't Batman. They are trained to protect themselves in one-on-one situations, not stand in for the SWAT team.
No, we can't shoot our way out of this cultural crisis. Let's turn the conversation to the roots of the problem, mental health issues specific to our young men, the glorification of gun violence, and the easy access to assault weapons. Those seem to be the most obvious and relevant challenges here.
Also, where's the data? I see a lot of, "Well if this would happen, then that would result." It's a lot of speculation, much of it absurd. Why don't we examine other countries that don't have a problem with mass shootings and start from there?
DeleteNo country in the world is as heavily armed as the US. Yemen comes in second, and it's only half as armed. "More guns" has not worked for us thus far, and I'll admit that specific gun controls alone do not always have a big impact. I think we need a big, nationwide conversation about our values and whether "the right to bear arms" is a more important value than the right of our children to live and get a safe education.
In 1996 there were two gun massacres in the UK and Australia. Draconian gun laws were brought in. Australia has never seen a repeat. There has never been a school shooting since in the UK.
ReplyDeleteStrict gun laws save lives. The US has to change its entire culture around firearms. Your children are dying for Gods sake.
OK, so there is some evidence from other countries that has actually happened and been documented. Thank you.
DeleteHere are my thoughts. I'm not at all making light of what happened yesterday. It's a terrible tragedy, an evil. The parents of those children went home to see presents under a Christmas tree, presents that were addressed to kids they couldn't hold anymore. But here's the thing that gets me. I'm ashamed, not that I feel anger/confusion/devastation over what happened in Connecticut yesterday, but that I DON'T feel the same amount of anger/confusion/devastation over the injustice against children that occurs EVERY DAY. Children are forced into prostitution and slavery, and most of the world doesn't even know about it. Most of us who do know about it pretend (on some level) that it doesn't exist because it's easier to just not care. Does something need to be done about the violence here? Yes. I say that we also need to WAKE UP and realize that unspeakable evil is happening against children all the time. Again, I'm not making light of the tragedy here at all. These families are facing incredible pain that I can't imagine. But I can't help but think that there are so many children in this world, so many families who know NOTHING but pain.
ReplyDeleteI speak as a gun owner, the wife of a hunter, and the mother of a child who attends a school at which there was a fatal shooting almost exactly two years ago.
ReplyDeleteGun control means nothing, unless you ban every single kind of gun on the market. And then you force everyone to turn in the guns they do have. EVERYONE. The average joe. Police officers. Security officers. Hunters. Sportsman.
What would that do? It would get guns out of the hands of honest, law-abiding people. Plenty more will keep their guns. Even, I bet, plenty of otherwise honest, law-abiding people.
Sure, we could try it. Maybe it would result in less mass-shooting deaths. But would it result in less violence? I don't think so.
Real change won't come from banning guns. Real change can only come when hearts are healed. And I believe that the only way for that to happen is through the life-changing belief in Jesus Christ.
I think the comment about mental health is extremely relevant. I urge everyone to look into the new non-profit started by Glenn Close and her sister, Bring Change 2 Mind. Perhaps if we begin taking a closer look at the mental illnesses that push some people to do extreme things, maybe we can help to prevent tragic events like yesterday. http://www.bringchange2mind.org/
ReplyDeleteGUN CONTROL. We need more and we need to enforce what laws are currently in place. I believe citizens should have to undergo the same rigorous testing and training as police officers undergo before they are allowed to own guns. End of story.
ReplyDeleteThank you for being a teacher. We are so lucky to have people in this world who are willing to teach and protect our children on a day to day basis. XOXO