Before I even start, please accept my apologies. I try to make it a point not to post anything “reactionary” to events or issues. I like to take my time, process, think and then try my best to write a piece which is balanced. Today will not be that day. I’m sorry.
I’m passed feeling sad every time I wake up to the news about another mass shooting in a public school. I’m done asking why. The very thing we should be talking about, is the very last thing anyone seems to care about. Why aren’t we doing a better job at protecting our children? Why is THIS not the rhetoric we hear on the news or all over social media? Instead of fixing things, we argue about things that aren’t even the issue.
First things first. The plain and simple truth is, we need to be putting these killings at the feet of those who are truly responsible. These young people who are walking into their schools and are taking the lives of their peers may have an agenda or they may be mentally ill. Either way, this is still on them. They are the ones who plotted and pulled the trigger. Plain and simple. But we don’t like this as a society for some reason. We need someone to be the enemy. We need someone to blame for “allowing” this to happen. While understandable, it’s not logical or practical.
These killings should be laid at the feet of the school administration as well. I get it, it’s not as simple as the school officials just “let this happen”, but they are responsible for the safety of the people that are in each school. Are they not?
It always seems to come down to money though, doesn’t it? 9/11 happens and the airline industry was changed in an instant. Columbine happens, nothing. Parkland (almost 20 years later), nothing other than a mandate for clear backpacks and the school administration gets blasted for even that. Suggest metal detectors in schools, people lose their minds about how much money this will cost. Suggest off-duty police officers to post at each school, people lose their minds because their kids will feel like prisoners and, well, the cost. THIS my friends is the problem. We can’t take more than 12 ounces of shampoo into an airport, but a 17 year-old can walk into his school with a shotgun and a .38 revolver? This is insanity to me! Tomorrow, kids will go to school across our country and nothing will be different except maybe a little bit of heightened anxiety.
This is on us as parents! How have we continued to allow our children to go to public school without DEMANDING changes! Demanding security measures that rival the TSA. Instead, we find it the perfect time to fight with each other about guns. I’m pretty sure we’ll see someone screaming on the news tonight about how President Trump and the NRA are to blame. This just simply isn’t the case.
When are we going to stop giving our opinion on what we think about guns and start doing right by our kids, our future? If you don’t think guns should be allowed anywhere, ever, that’s great! If you think everyone should be armed to the hilt, that’s great too! But stop allowing these shootings to divide us on an issue that isn’t going to fix the problem. I really don’t care what your stand is on guns. And honestly, you don’t care about mine. What we both will agree on though is, we want these shootings to stop!
If we want to stop this insanity, we have to offer up actionable solutions that can be put into place… NOW! I’ve never understood why metal detectors were never put into schools after Columbine. Someone told me a number of years ago, she didn’t want her kids to feel like they were entering a prison to have to go to school. This is the most ridiculous reason I’ve ever heard! Do you feel like you’re going to prison when you go through TSA at the airport? I don’t! I’m not saying I like it, but I know it’s a process that is put in place for my protection. If anything, I feel safer. It should be harder to get a gun into a public school then it is to get into the airport.
Emma Gonzalez gave an impassioned speech after the Parkland shooting, calling out the NRA and President Trump, basically blaming them for the tragedy. I’m not suggesting you should like or support either Trump or the NRA. The fact is though, the adults around Emma did a terrible job guiding her through her fifteen minutes of fame. We might have seen real change start to happen if there would have been one adult on that stage that would have said, “Hey, I know you’re emotional right now but make the main thing the main thing. That kid should have never gotten into your school armed in the first place. The school and their lack of security failed you.” Not saying she shouldn’t have said what she said. She had every right to be emotional and say what she did. Instead, she was used to further a political agenda rather than bring about real change.
YES! Make a plea to the President! Make a plea to your Congressmen and Congresswomen. But to blame them or the NRA is short-sighted and ridiculous. The adults on that stage with Emma, the news media and the politicians who allowed her speech to be about their political stance rather than working towards a reasonable solution, feed the problem rather than solve it.
There may be a need to pass legislation and laws, but don’t use these shootings as your “proof” we need gun control. We can fight, kick, scream and protest for gun control or gun reform all we want but at the end of the day, the real truth is these mass shootings are our responsibility to fix. You can’t point your finger at the lawmakers, the NRA, gun manufacturers or anyone who sells guns and say, “This is on you!” The only reason we do is because we don’t want to face the fact that, in reality, this falls on each and every one of us. At the end of the day, there’s no one to blame other than ourselves. We failed our children.
Steven L Struble 