Because this is America, we have to have yet another discussion on gun control after school students are shot dead in their classrooms. This time in Parkland, Fl where seventeen students and teachers were gunned down by a lone gunman who entered the school with a legally purchased AR variant rifle.
The big difference this time around are the student survivors who are putting down their feet and refusing to back down this time. Since the Columbine shooting, our nation has allowed mass shootings happen time and time again without doing anything beyond offering thoughts and prayers. We've grown numb. We've asked our children to keep in the back of their minds that at any time, a person may walk into their school and decide to kill as many of them as he can. And we will not do anything about it.
The idea that we should arm teachers is laughable on the surface, but underneath reveals a special cowardice in the people who advocate for it. Much like congressmen who vote to send the military to war and fight in conditions they themselves would never consider. To tell an educator they must prepare themselves to take a life, possibly the life of a former student of theirs, rather than put forth any federal gun restriction legislation is being a coward.
I've seen signs stating the NRA is a terrorist organization, and honestly I'm inclined to believe that. But more than that, the gun owners who threaten violence on the people who would ask for gun restrictions is proof we are a sick country who needs their guns removed. We are showing the next generation we cannot be trusted with them because we value high powered, semi-automatic rifles in our closets over their lives. We'd rather be able to get handguns in 15 minutes, and in some states, not require a background check for person to person sales.
The government isn't coming for our guns because we'd rather sell our souls then ever give them up. We will give them every other amendment, and politicians will gladly take them and leave us clutching our rifles while they wring us dry of everything else.
Here's hoping these kids can force a change. Because we certainly won't do it ourselves.