#2-26-16

if there were more strict gun control laws then maybe guns wouldn’t be so fucking easy to get. if we made it mandatory to pass mental health tests before purchasing one. if we banned AR-15s and others like it. if we made the consumer take and pass a shooting range class. made them take a class about gun safety. if we had thorough background checks. if you had to register your gun with the police and provide a detailed description of where you will keep your weapon and where.

2-26-16 said: imagine if it was your daughter or son. imagine how the parents of the victims felt. imagine if you had to plan your child’s funeral, all because some fucking psychopath purchased a gun, legally. imagine if it was your child.

2-26-16 said: school is power. education is key. guns are threatening it. guns make us terrified. guns cover us with fear.

2-26-16 said: to make a computer browse websites. its where students become hands on with chemicals and physics. its where we find who we want to be — whether that be writers that will enhance our literary world, a scientist that finds a cure for cancer, an activist that’s inspired by our finding fathers who rose up and demanded change.

2-26-16 said: i am a teenage girl with aspirations. i want to make the world a better place. i want my voice to be heard. i have shit to say and shit to do one day. but i cant do that if while im being educated, i am distracted with the fear of my life being taken. education is powerful. school is a place to learn our countrys history so that one day we can make more. its where some students learn to do the programming and coding that is needed in order to make a traffic light work. to make a phone ring.

2-26-16 said: if laws like that were passed, i wouldn’t feel so god damn afraid when we hear a book drop. we wouldnt have to go through monthly lockdown drills where our principal says “lockdown, i repeat, we are on lockdown” never knowing if its real or not. never knowing if i have to text my dad that i love him im case i never see him again. never knowing if today will be my last day.

2-26-16 said: if there were more strict gun control laws then maybe guns wouldn’t be so fucking easy to get. if we made it mandatory to pass mental health tests before purchasing one. if we banned AR-15s and others like it. if we made the consumer take and pass a shooting range class. made them take a class about gun safety. if we had thorough background checks. if you had to register your gun with the police and provide a detailed description of where you will keep your weapon and where.

2-26-16 said: i think of pulse night club. how scared the people hiding in the bathroom mustve been. how many of them still suffer from a mental disorder, PTSD, because of it all. children who survived sandy hook will never be the same. neither will the kids who survived columbine, or parkland. all of this happened because of a gun.

2-26-16 said: im tired of being in school and hearing a book drop and the whole room goes silent because we all think its a gunshot. every time i think of guns i think of the innocent children in sandy hook who were brutally murdered by a man with a gun. the ones who had their mothers pack their lunches that day. the ones that wanted to be rockstars when they grew up. i think of eric and dylan, the two mother fuckers who walked into Columbine and shot and killed several high school students.

@2-26-16

The thing is, I disagree, frankly, with the policies you’ve suggested, for a variety of reasons. I can explain those reasons if you’d like, and I have no issues with answering any questions regarding the subject at hand if you have them. 

More importantly, though, I’d like to ask you why I should, in your opinion, change my stance to align with yours. This is what I meant by saying “change my mind,” I’d like for you to explain why I should, and to convince me, if you can.

It is very unlikely that I will change my mind based only on your individual fear, for a very simple and direct reason, fear is an irrational emotion. Plenty of people have fears which do not align with the actual state of reality, and unless I’m shown that your fear has a statistical and understandable basis, and taking the steps you’ve suggested will effect the cause of that fear, I cannot justify infringing on the rights of people to defend themselves by limiting access to defensive technology in the manners you’ve suggested.

That isn’t to say I’m writing off your fear and frustration, I think they’re both honest, and totally reasonable reactions to tragedies that you’re constantly being blasted with every single day in what, honestly, feels like psychological abuse or torture by news organizations.

My issue is that realistically speaking, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than killed in a school shooting, even as a student, unless you live in the inner city and/or are associated with gangs/drug violence.

That said, I’m not either dismissing you or the policies you’ve posited; I’m asking you to try to convince me, through reason, logic, and rhetoric, that the policies you suggest will do what you say they will do, and also address the concerns I have regarding them.

If you lay out a rhetorically sound explanation as to why these actions should be taken, including answering concerns I might have, I will very happily change to align with your beliefs.

Mom: *looks at me like it is my fault*