17 Minutes
“You know what was crazy about the walk-out? Everyone was gathered in the same place, so people were worried about a shooting because we were all in one spot, and easy targets. That tells you why we needed to do it. “
This is how one Junior at Niwot High School summed up the lesson she learned by walking out of school at 10:00 am on March 14, in remembrance of the 17 students killed last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
This tells you — the adult in the room, the one with the vote — why we need to hear them.
This tells you why we need to stop the debate, stop thinking about the money and the identity politics and the fallacious arguments and what-all, and just act. Don’t let anyone say it’s not that big a problem. It is our national shame. We need to stop it before any more children die in their classrooms. Because identity politics and profits on gun sales both count for nothing next to even one young life.
It seemed like most of the school was there — I had never seen that many people together before. The teachers weren’t there — there was something about their contract that made them have to stay inside. We all gathered outside, and one student leader gave a speech about how we should all be able to feel safe in school.
Here is a list of things that can be done now. The legislation has been drafted -sometimes years ago. The debates about terminology have been argued. The experts have spoken. Now we must hold our legislators accountable and force them to enact this.
- Ban the sale of semi-automatic rifles.
- Ban the sale of bump stocks.
- Ban the sale of magazines bigger than 10 rounds.
- Institute universal background checks now, and that means closing the gun show loophole.
- Ban the sale of any firearm to anyone younger than 21 years old.
- Institute buy-back programs for all banned items.
Nobody’s second-amendment rights are threatened by this agenda. We are not committing some cultural aggression. The late Justice Antonin Scalia, writing the landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller, which established the right of private citizens to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment, also ruled that government at all levels could regulate and limit that right. We can require insurance. The insurers can require safe storage. We can require and administer tests of competency. Most of all, we can limit the weapons covered by the second amendment to those, as Scalia put it, that were in common usage at the time [when the Bill of Rights was written].
We walked for about 17 minutes, and every minute they said the name and age of people who had been killed in the Florida shooting. I nearly cried. There were some people who didn’t take it as solemnly as others — they were chatting — but they were there, and that’s what counts.
The list above will stop many mass shootings because they’ll become harder to carry out. But we still need to address the societal ills that make young men want to go out and kill people wholesale. This change won’t happen all at once. But here are some grown-up ideas on how to begin it.
- Begin certification and insurance programs for gun ownership. Every state has a model for this in automobile licensing and insurance law.
- Change the way we deliver mental health care. Get rid of the stigma associated with mental illness, and increase public awareness of mental distress and how to recognize those with mental illness and get them the help they need.
- Re-institute the ongoing study of gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control. Don’t let the NRA win by keeping us ignorant.
- Begin a non-partisan study of violence, gender, and power in our culture. We need to understand the malaise that’s driving too many young men crazy.
On March 24 we join with our children in the March for our Lives. That’s the day of the County Assembly for many of us who were elected delegates in the recent party Caucuses. If you can’t march, donate here. Your children will thank you. If you march, put one of these demands on your sign.
There’s no need to wait until November to make this happen. We can force the legislators who represent us now to do our bidding. Senator Cory Gardner ranks fifth in the Congress in money accepted from the NRA. Ken Buck ranks 19th in the Congress and 2nd in the House. Let them prove that they were not bought with that money. Let them prove they represent us.
Here is what we can do. Keep the protests alive through the spring and summer. We have been practicing protest for a year. Our children learned that lesson well, and now they are teaching us. If common-sense gun reforms have not been enacted by fall, don’t send the students back. Keep the schools closed.
We have all summer to organize alternative schools. We can organize this. Parents, what could you not do, if your child’s life depended on it? Stop fooling yourselves. It does.
I heard that there were people who didn’t go, and that there was a tiny counter-protest where someone held a sign with a snake that said “Don’t tread on me”. But I didn’t see it myself. I personally felt that this many students gathered in solidarity will hopefully effect some change.
