Gun Control Post Parkland

(http://abcnews.go.com/US/15-dead-horrific-florida-school-shooting-suspect-custody/story?id=53087462)

How it All Started:

February 14th, 2018. This was the date of the deadliest high school shooting in American History. It was on this date that Nineteen year-old former student Nicholas Cruz, using a gun he purchased in the state of Florida, opened fire on the school killing seventeen students and wounding fourteen others. Cue the same cycle of events that always happens after a mass shooting: Thoughts and prayers go out to the feelings; being told by politicians in power that “it’s too early to talk about gun control”; and moving on with our everyday lives like it never even happened. Except, the survivors of the shooting refused to let people move on and forget about what happened, they demanded action from their lawmakers. What happened next would change the course of history.

(http://time.com/5214072/march-for-our-lives-parkland-survivors/)

What Happened Next:

Three days after shooting the kids of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School spoke at gun control rally in the neighboring city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. One student named Emma Gonzalez gave a speech in particular that immediately went viral. Below is a small excerpt of her speech.

“Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works. We call BS” (CNN).

This speech lit a spark with young people who were fed up with inaction from lawmakers. After this speech students from across the country mobilized in support of gun control and in solidarity with the Parkland Survivors. One month after the shooting there were national student walkouts where kids walked out of school to protest gun violence and demand comprehensive gun control. Then ten days later over 1.2 million people across the United States marched in the Parkland student organized March For Our Lives, including anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000 students in Washington D.C. (Lopez). This activism wasn’t just about taking a stand however, it was about demanding change. While that change only represented a minor new School Safety Law at the Federal Level, at the state level it was a much different story.

(http://blog.timesunion.com/wagingpeace/walking-and-chewing-gum/4525/)

Gun Control Measures Taken After the Parkland Shooting:

After the shooting, new developments found that the shooter Nicholas Cruz had a lengthy prior history of unstable behavior. Margaret Kramer and Jennifer Harlan of The New York Times reported that on top of his expulsion from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school Cruz had stalked a female student, made posts on social media about how he had tortured and killed animals, his stepmother had called the police on him numerous times, almost being sent to a psychiatric home by school counselors and sheriff’s deputies, and even previous tips to the F.B.I. warning them that Cruz was dangerous (Kramer, Harlam). Needless to say had there been Universal Background Checks, he never would have gotten the gun and this shooting possibly never would have happened. After these developments, the Parkland students led a rally at the Florida state capitol in Jacksonville demanding new gun control legislation. And for the first time in twenty years, the state of Florida passed and signed into law new gun control regulations that established Universal Background Checks and raised the age to buy a gun in Florida to 21, despite the NRA’s opposition. But it wasn’t just Florida who passed new gun control measures after Parkland.

According to Pew Research Center following the Parkland Shooting, 67 new gun laws were passed in 27 different states (Vasilogambros). These include Washington which raised its age minimum to purchase a gun to twenty-one, and Oregon which banned those previously convicted of domestic violence to carry a gun (Seelye, Bidgood). However, some states have taken the opposite approach, with members of the South Dakota State House passing a bill that would allow people to carry guns in schools and in churches. Also in Idaho and Wyoming, new “Stand Your Ground Laws” were passed that says that one can use deadly force without attempting to remove oneself from the situation (Abreu, Zegers). Also after the Democrats retook control of the House of Representatives, they immediately introduced a gun control bill, however even if it passes the house it’s almost certain to fail in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Ultimately, where we stand now is that 2018 had the highest rate of gun violence ever recorded(Trace), and this debate about gun control is only going to increase. That being said, the impact of the Parkland students and students across the country has already been seen at the state level. The questions I will tackle in this blog is: what gun control policies work, how can we tell that they are working, and what can we learn from each side of the gun debate? However, when it comes to Parkland I don’t want the victims who lost their lives to be forgotten. Below are the names of the students who lost their lives in the shooting.

Aaron Feis

Alaina Petty

Alex Schachter

Alyssa Alhadeff

Cara Loughran

Carmen Schentrup

Chris Hixon

Gina Montalto

Helena Ramsay

Jamie Guttenberg

Joaquin Oliver

Luke Hoyer

Martin Duque Anguiano

Meadow Pollack

Nicholas Dworet

Peter Wang

Scott Beigel

(NPR)

Regardless of personal belief about gun control, I believe it is important to honor those who were lost, and to remember their names instead of the name of the killer. May god bless them and may their souls forever rest in peace.

(https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/1035a51a309f987c6677b55e469cb4d9/Commemorating-The-Anniversary-of-the-Parkland-Florida-School-Shooting/)

Works Cited:

Hampton, Rick. “After Parkland shooting: A day-by-day fight over guns in America”. USA Today. 26 December 2018.

Vasilogambros, Matt. “States Passed 67 New Gun Laws in 2018” Pew Research Center. 14 December 2018. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/12/14/states-passed-67-new-gun-control-laws-in-2018

“Florida student Emma Gonzalez to lawmakers and gun advocates: ‘We call BS’”. CNN. 17 February 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/17/us/florida-student-emma-gonzalez-speech/index.html

Lopez, German. “It’s official: March for Our Lives was one of the biggest youth protests since the Vietnam War”. Vox. 26 March 2018. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/26/17160646/march-for-our-lives-crowd-size-count

Gray, Sarah. “Thousands of Students Walked Out of School Today in Nationwide Protests. Here’s Why”. Time Magazine. 14 March 2018. http://time.com/5195960/national-school-walkout-march-14/

Tesfaye, Sophia. “House Judiciary Committee poised to pass gun control bill one year after Parkland school shooting”. https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/house-judiciary-committee-poised-to-pass-gun-control-bill-one-year-after-parkland-school-shooting/

Seele, Katherine Q.; Bidgood, Jess. “What Are States Doing About Gun Violence After the Florida Shooting?” The New York Times. 26 February 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/us/gun-control-laws.html

Wamsley. Laurel; Gonzalez, Richard. “17 People Died In The Parkland Shooting. Here Are Their Names”. NPR. 15 February 2018. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/15/586095587/17-people-died-in-the-parkland-shooting-here-are-their-names

Abreu, Danielle; Zegers, Kelly. “Parkland Survivors Activism Spurred Wave of Gun Control Laws in 2018.” NBCMiami.com. 12 February 2019. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/national-international/Parkland-Survivors-Activism-Sparks-Gun-Control-Legislation-505534491.html