When is Enough, Enough?

May 3, 2023

About 1 month ago a close friend of mine was involved in a shooting outside of my school, Maxine Greene High School for Imaginative Inquiry. Hearing this news hurt the hearts of many of my peers. Earlier that morning, I was with him and I remembered seeing him full of life and being his usual carefree self. Luckily, he was okay, but the traumatic experience shattered the minds of him and my peers. Upon hearing the news, I was heartbroken. I asked myself, “What if it was me?” So many emotions ran through my mind and body at once, but with all this happening I couldn't help but question all that I knew as well. Many kids focus on the idea that they may not make it until tomorrow so they try to plan out their life and live it to the fullest in a day. But why must our youth think this way? Some believe that guns are not the issue, people are. But what about the culture that promotes gun use? Even if a gun is bought to protect or defend, no child should ever have to worry about being killed because others are exercising their right to bear arms. The Second Amendment supports the right to bear arms, not the right to use arms to create mass violence.

Conservatives and pro-gun groups argue that guns are not the real cause of school shootings while anti-gun groups and politicians, on the other hand, argue that guns should be controlled to address school shootings. But the subject of gun control is a controversial subject. Still, it comes up every time there is a school shooting. Therefore, what is the appropriate way to address such topics and which side is more correct? As someone who has been in a situation similar to a school shooting and heard about a lot of gun violence growing up, I believe that guns are the issue and should be controlled. 

Pro-gun groups do not agree with the idea that the problem is with the guns but the issue is the minds of the people using the guns. There is no single answer to the cause of mass school shootings, but it goes much deeper and further than issues of gun control and mental illness. The question that comes to mind now is “Why would a student bring a weapon to school and without any explicable reason open fire on fellow students and teachers?”  This is because the emotions that are derived to force someone to commit such heinous acts is caused by a lack of unity in a community. If we took the time out to make sure one another was okay then I do believe we would go through less heartache and hardships. The BBC published an article about why the number of shootings in the US has risen and how this has affected the nation vastly. Throughout the article, they give context on the main issues surrounding gun control and what forms of gun control are most prominent. Experts say it's hard to pin down the exact root causes of the rise because mass shootings are often unpredictable in nature. So when, if ever will we stand up and truly come to this realization that guns need to be controlled?