Since 2013 there have been a whopping 300 school shootings in American schools. Just this year, there have already been 9 shootings and it is only March! In the UK there has been 1 school shooting ever and that happened in 1996, almost 22 years ago… Why the big difference? Why are there still no solutions?
People all over the world were shocked to find out that 17 young people were shot and killed on Valentine’s Day… A day for love and happiness, not shock and disaster.19 year old, Nikolas Cruz, former pupil of the school, entered the building armed with a semi-automatic rifle with plans to kill children.
Bullets were flying from the gun as children and their teachers ran for safety. Try and imagine the teenagers doing what teenagers do on that special day in their lives. Sharing ‘I love you’ for, unbeknownst to them, the very last time. As the children made their dramatic escape the gunman blended in with the fleeing crowd in order to confuse he police trying to capture him. Nikolas Cruz was later arrested in the residential area of Coral Springs after sauntering away from the school. He now faces charges of murder and attempted murder.
American President, Donald Trump has said that he will consider arming teachers in an attempt to stop school shootings. He says that he would give teachers between a 10% and 40% pay raise if they were to carry a gun. Trump’s words were: “But if he had a firearm, he wouldn’t have had to run, he would have shot him, and that would have been the end of it. This would only obviously be for people who are very adept at handling a gun. It’s called concealed carry, where a teacher would have a concealed gun on them. They’d go for special training and they would be there and you would no longer have a gun-free zone. Gun-free zone to a maniac, because they’re all cowards, a gun-free zone is: ‘Let’s go in and let’s attack, because bullets aren’t coming back at us. An attack has lasted, on average, about three minutes. It takes five to eight minutes for responders, for the police to come in, so the attack is over. If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly.” He has taken his idea of arming teachers from the idea that ‘most’ pilots now carry gun: “You know, a lot of people don’t understand that airline pilots now, a lot of them carry guns, and I have to say that things have changed a lot.’’ The thought of my school teachers being armed with guns seems surreal. School is meant to be a safe place for children to learn and grow up in. In the USA there are over 300million guns and instead of removing them from the hands of those who may take advantage of having them, they are adding more to the market? They removed the belt from schools all across the UK in 1980s because it was thought to be child cruelty. Hurting children for doing things all children do? Now, imagine teachers were given a gun… As a young child coming into a class where the teachers are armed that would be terrifying. Fighting fire with fire is irresponsible and would cause more damage than good. I believe that some teachers would use firearms as a threat to the children. In my opinion I believe that all guns should be removed from public use. I think that the American laws should be tightened and that guns should only be used be the police and military. I find it disgusting that people these days are still affected by gun crime in America and I can only imagine how horrific it must be to have been scarred by an event like this.
