The U.S.A is one of three countries to include gun-ownership in their constitution, along with Mexico and Guatemala. The right to “keep and bear arms” is the Second Amendment, which was established in the 18th Century in an attempt to allow states to protect themselves against threat. There are an estimated 270 million guns in the U.S and since 2013; there has been nearly 300 school shootings in the country – an average of about one a week.
School Shooting
An attack on an educational institution, such as a school or university, involving the use of a firearm.
One of the deadliest school shootings ever to take place in America was the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, leaving 20 children under the age of 7 years old and 6 staff members killed. The perpetrator of the attack was a troubled 20 year old, Adam Lanza. Adam gained easy access to his mother’s gun which was kept in their home in Newton, Connecticut. When his mother tried to calm him down and retrieve the gun back, he instantly shot her in head, and then proceeded to kill innocent children and himself after.
One of the most recent, terrifying shootings at a school was in Parkland, Florida on February 14th.
The perpetrator was Nicolas Cruz, a 19 year-old challenged pupil who was expelled from the school a year earlier due to threatening other pupils. This obviously indicates that Nicolas is as well; extremely young to have any access to a gun at all, but due to American politicians insisting that they keep the law, these horrific incidents will continue to happen almost every day.
On 13th March, 1996, gunman Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 children and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland. This remains the deadliest, but very last, massacre in Scotland’s history. Britain’s lawmakers rightly introduced new legislation — the Firearms (Amendment) Act — making registration mandatory for owning shotguns and banning semi-automatic and pump-action weapons. In comparison to America, there have been 1,126 mass shootings since the Sandy Hook school shooting, yet laws about the right to bear arms are still in place today.
So many people in America and the rest of the world are asking the same question. How many of these shootings have to occur before Donald Trump and the rest of America’s lawmakers realise that this law does not have a place in the 21st century?
I personally think that gun control should have been put in place a very long time ago, and sincerely hope that something is done soon about these horrific attacks that are occurring far too often.
