Dead Students Fail to Reform Gun Laws

Bret Rachlin
Sep 8, 2018 · 4 min read
Photo by Denisse Leon on Unsplash

Dead babies persuade people to take action. Once you prove that babies are dying, you will successfully convince others to stop whatever is killing them. At least, that’s what my communications professor explained to my Persuasion class at Vanderbilt University in 1993. Unfortunately, this maxim no longer works.

Although the students killed through mass school shootings aren’t babies, they are young enough that their deaths should cause unbelievably deep sadness among a large number of U.S. citizens. Thoughts and prayers are offered immediately, yet very little community effort actually goes into solving the problems that cause the shootings in the first place.

While school shootings are still statistically rare, fear is rising among students, as well as their teachers. One Santa Fe High School student even presciently indicated that she expected to be shot at one day. Having larger numbers of scared students attend school everyday is almost as tragic as the number of dead and wounded from the shootings themselves. Education in the U.S. is already challenging enough, and adding fear to students’ challenges creates a difficult learning environment. For the past 30 years, the violence occurring in many urban schools has created plenty of frightened students. However, the mass media mainly ignore publicizing schools where fear and education intertwine. Moreover, today’s kids already suffer in rising numbers from depression and anxiety, so imagine what they’ll be like in ten years when fear grows.

Follow my logic. Student fear continues to grow and will possibly become an epidemic. Compulsory education laws require most children to attend school. Without making any changes to the status quo, the United States is essentially endorsing a policy of fear among citizens who represent the future of this country. This is unacceptable.

School shootings are primarily an American problem. Foreign nations deal with this far less than the U.S. Many of those nations also have stricter gun laws. This is not a coincidence. However, this is not a plea to end gun ownership in America. It is simply a proposed plan to support responsible gun ownership. One that will make it far less likely for people, especially young people, to gain access to guns and use them in a harmful way.

What is required is a multipoint solution. It will take time to implement and to see results, but time is necessary for citizens to unify to solve the mass school-shooting problem. Some of these points are currently being implemented to differing degrees, but many of these are more ambitious. It’s time for Americans to decide whether student safety and security, including the ability of students to learn free from fear, is an important enough issue to improve. Continuing with the status quo only illustrates that our country’s priorities are elsewhere, which is truly tragic.

To ensure consistency across the nation, a federal solution is required. Necessary reform includes:

· Enhanced background checks: Background checks must be standardized at the Federal level and include topics that minimize the risks related to allowing individuals to own guns. For example, today, life insurance underwriters may refuse to write policies for individuals who exhibit risky behavior. Similarly, individuals who have historically demonstrated to act recklessly may not be able to own guns. For example, a domestic violence offender should not have the right to own a gun. Additionally, gun show loopholes should be closed.

· Federal licensing guidelines: Develop specific licensing guidelines for gun ownership. To earn a driver’s license, people must complete a written exam, as well as a driving test to ensure that they know how to drive responsibly. Why wouldn’t we apply the same logic to owning guns? Making sure people know how to use guns safely is critical for success.

· Mental health checks: Gun owners must have mental health checks on a yearly basis to determine if they are stable enough to continue owning guns.

· Ability to remove guns from homes where irresponsible and/or threatening behavior exists: Local school officials along with law enforcement would be able to remove weapons from homes of individuals exhibiting potentially violent behavior. Many of the school shootings could have been avoided if access to guns had been restricted.

· Age limit of 25: Gun owners must be at least 25 years of age. Most rental car agencies exclude people under 25 from renting cars (or they provide cars at a much higher expense) because they know that people under 25 are more reckless, making them riskier bets. (Exceptions are permissible for people who are police officers, military members and select other groups.)

· Severe punishments for gun owners whose guns are used in a harmful way: Gun owners must keep their guns out of the hands of anyone else other than themselves. If an owner’s gun is used in a crime, then the owner will lose the right to own guns and pay a stiff fine through wage garnishment, in addition to facing potential criminal charges. This will be a proportional punishment; so irresponsible wealthy citizens will pay quite a bit more than irresponsible poor citizens.

· Fingerprint technology: Implement fingerprint technology that restricts gun use to gun owners and their designees. All designees must satisfy the above requirements.

· Trade-in program: To buy new guns, owners must trade in their older guns that don’t support fingerprint technology (or install third-party fingerprint technology capabilities). This will take traditional guns out of the hands of the general population, replacing them with more secure guns that improve public safety. Tracking will obviously be challenging, but the more we can remove unsecure guns from communities, the safer schools and communities will be.

Overall, while not perfect, this plan opens a dialog to meaningful change. Without focused efforts to alter the status quo, school fear will grow, harming a generation of students, not only while they attend school, but also negatively impacting their post-school ability to succeed. Is the United States no better than the status quo? We’ll see.

Bret Rachlin

A concerned citizen who wants to help solve hard problems and make a positive impact.

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