Gun control has fallen into the laps of the people…again
Gun reform has been a controversial topic for those across the aisle for the last two decades. The idea of cracking down and making the action of purchasing firearms is a widely disputed idea for varying reasons in Congress. With the rollback of former President Barack Obama’s gun law, President Trump implicated a new regulation (H.J. Res 40) which eliminated the strict enforcement for purchasing firearms. This rollback from the Obama-era regulation, which came right after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting back in 2012, has set the nation back even further with regards to gun control. The discussion of stricter gun control should not be a seasonal topic. In other words, the discussion of gun control should not be a topic that is only discussed when we have a mass shooting, instead it should be an option on the ballot.
The topic of gun control has fallen back into the laps of the people once again. Parkland, Florida, is the latest on the list for areas with mass shootings. On Feb. 14, 2018, Valentine’s Day, Nikolas Cruz went into his high school at the end of the day with an AR-15; a semiautomatic rifle. Cruz went on a shooting spree, killing 17 students and faculty members while injuring another 15 people. Cruz has been linked to various mental health issues and had been attending a local mental health clinic for about a year before quitting in the fall. Along with this being an issue of stricter gun laws, it is also a mental health issue. Cruz is a very deeply disturbed young man with a long past of atrocious acts of senseless violence. When does this “senseless violence” end, does it end with the next school shooting, or does it end with us voting and rallying together to make a difference? The violence has yet to be ceased — there have been other minor shootings since then across the nation. Lois Beckett from the Guardian notes that there have been eight school shootings in the short span of 2018, this was reported just the day after the Parkland shooting. The nation is in mourning nearly a week and a half later and it still feels as if it happened yesterday. The families and those affected are in our thoughts while they face this newly-found emptiness in their hearts.
