When will students be able go to school without the threat of an armed assailant? (Photo by Lindsey Paull / Cincinnati Register)

By Divya Rana ‘21

Across the country and beyond, tens of thousands of young people walked out of their school to demand action on gun control and violence. It only took one massacre to change the views of Americans and the issue of gun control has always been a problem but even more now than ever. Now there are discussions of arming teachers with guns, allowing officers the right to seize guns from mentally unstable people, issuing a universal background check, and even repealing or rewriting the Second Amendment.

The public is crying out for stricter gun laws and the President is ready to listen. Trump has embraced gun control and is urging a group of lawmakers at the White House to resurrect a gun safety legislation that would expand background checks to weapons purchased at gun shows and on the Internet. He also wants to keep guns from mentally ill people, secure schools and restrict gun sales for some young adults by suggesting that law enforcement authorities should have the power to seize guns from mentally ill people or others who could present a danger without first going to court. He states “I like taking the guns early.” (New York Times). 

But the public protests that the government was nowhere to be seen when the school shootings were happening all over the United States.

Gun control has become a vastly more important issue following the Florida school shooting massacre. Trump insists on arming teachers with guns in an attempt to provide a solution to school shootings. There have also been thoughts on repealing or rewriting the Second Amendment which protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

In the last dozen years, new organizations have been launched in an effort to combat the influence of the National Rifle Association, either in response to a specific mass shooting or the persistence of daily gun deaths in America’s inner cities. An example of this is seen by liberal activists who have recently started a group called Guns Down after the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando in order to promote a more aggressive political and policy campaign against firearms (The Atlantic).

Ideas pull the trigger but instinct loads the gun. How much more longer will the young adults of the United States have to wait until they can feel safe again? How much more longer until a student can go to school without worrying about a threat of a school shooter? When will justice reign? When will the government act? These questions will continue to plague the public until an answer is received.