Block is a first-year political science student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He’s from Encinitas.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget how I felt on Feb. 15, 2018. It was the day after the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that took the lives of fourteen students and three staff-. I was in eighth grade at the time. I knew school shootings, and the concept of mass shootings for that matter, were a thing. We did lockdown drills in school, I heard about them on the news, none of it was foreign. I don’t know what made my reaction to Parkland different. Maybe I was finally old enough to truly grasp what it meant for seventeen people to be suddenly taken away. When I returned to school the next day, I was terrified.
I vividly running through scenarios in my head during my American history class. There were two doors in the room: one outside and one to a shared “quad” between all the rooms in the building. If a shooter came, my first option was to bolt out the door, jump over the small wall, and run the mile and a half back to my house as quickly as I possibly could. Option two was to barricade the outside door with desks and hide under the windows (out of sight and hopefully out of the line of fire). This was five years ago and I can still feel that fear as if it was yesterday. I was under no immediate danger, but it felt like anyone could be next. Any town, any community, any school just like mine.
Today, gun violence is the leading cause of death of children and teens in America. I am immensely frustrated that the United States hasn’t been able to solve the issue of gun violence, especially compared to almost every developed nation. And all this frustration is coming from somebody who has never experienced gun violence personally. I can’t comprehend a fraction of the pain that survivors have to go through.
So what can be done? You’ve likely heard of renewing the Assault Weapons Ban. Employing universal background checks and mandatory waiting periods after purchasing guns are also gaining steam (and are widely ed by the vast majority of Americans). So let’s focus on some more novel ideas. Countries with fewer guns have fewer shootings, so a voluntary gun buyback program could be a key step in taking guns, especially assault rifles like the AR-15 prevalent in mass shootings, out of circulation entirely. Red flags laws allow guns to be temporarily taken from individuals a judge deems a danger to themselves or others and are proven to prevent violence. A federal version could be key to preventing known threats from inflicting violence. Mandatory gun safety training is also critical to fostering responsible gun owners. I see no reason they shouldn’t require hours of training to obtain a license just like we do for cars. We recognize the danger inherent in operating a motor vehicle, and it is far time we recognize the inherent danger in operating a firearm, regardless of the intentions of the handler.
What can you do? The most obvious way is to donate to organizations like Everytown, March for Our Lives and the Brady Campaign that fight for gun safety legislation that keeps people safe. If you aren’t in the position to donate, I highly encourage you to volunteer your time to these organizations. It doesn’t have to be a massive commitment; every little action can help bring people towards a massive goal. Personally, I have volunteered with Everytown’s Students Demand Action as part of the text team for the past four years. For me, it has been an incredible way to channel my frustration into action. Similarly, I encourage you to take a second look at the gun policy of organizations you are considering donating to or buying from. Many nonpolitical organizations financially the National Rifle Association, which directly contributes to lobbying efforts that keeps common sense legislation from being voted on. Oh, I almost forgot to say to vote!
I would be remiss if I didn’t use this platform to touch on what I see to be the greatest misconceptions about solutions to gun violence. I firmly believe the answer to the bad guy with a gun is not a good guy with a gun. Nashville, Uvalde, Parkland and so many more examples show us the “good guys” often don’t prevent violence when they need to. In fact, shootings are often stopped by unarmed civilian bystanders. States with weaker concealed carry laws also have a higher violent crime rate. Am I saying that all gun owners are violent people? No. Am I saying that zero mass shootings can be stopped by an armed officer or bystander? No. What I am saying is that we cannot rely on “good guys” with guns to take down the “bad guys.” It clearly isn’t working for us. We need to improve training for police to de-escalate conflicts in constructive ways and limit the death machines we are sending out to the world. More guns is fundamentally not the answer.
Don’t take this article as my complete thoughts on gun violence prevention. This is an incredibly complex topic that cannot be addressed adequately in a short article. I don’t want to see any comments attempting to invalidate my pleas because of something I couldn’t make room to mention. Here’s the big picture: people are dying and we can prevent it, but we don’t. We’re too caught up in tradition and partisanship to have a meaningful and vulnerable dialogue about what needs to change. Anyone can see that our system is broken today. So let’s work towards a solution that means that no child has to plan exit routes out of their history class instead of paying attention to the material. But more than that, let’s work towards a solution that means guns aren’t the leading cause of death in children and teens, one that means bad people don’t have guns in the first place, and one that means people aren’t dying preventable deaths.
