- Apr 3, 2018
How empowering it was for the students who walked out of school this week to protest the lack of gun control in our country. They said loud and clear, "Enough!"
When you're a kid, you don't have much control. Adults are the ones in control. But when 17 students and teachers were killed at a high school in Florida last month -- another school shooting in a long list of school shootings and casualties that seem epidemic in our nation -- kids realized that the only way that there will be change is if they fight for that change.
Our country has a rich history of civil disobedience and protest; what a wonderful real life moment for our kids to use their voices and demand change and become part of history. For years adults have done little to nothing; tragedy after tragedy and thoughts and prayers were doled out by those in power to make change, yet the killings continued.
Today, right now, students are speaking directly to the lawmakers and pleading, "Do something!" They simply want to go to school and not have to worry that they may not make it home alive by the end of the day. Enough is enough!
I felt chills down my spine when I saw on TV the students of Columbine High School gathering outside their school; I realized that every single one of them was not yet born when the infamous shooting happened at their school back in 1999.
How many beautiful lives have been lost since 1999 because no legislation was passed to protect kids in schools from gun violence?
How many more children have to be gunned down before we demand that there is gun control in our country?
This is not about amending the Constitution or eliminating citizen's Constitutional rights. This is about using common sense. No one in our society needs assault rifles to hunt or defend their property. Assault rifles are made for war, for killing. Let's ban them. Let's not allow anyone, anywhere in the U.S., to have the right to purchase an assault rifle. If the law prevents tragedy, if it allows even one beautiful young person to live his/her life without being gunned down in childhood, if it prevents one more parent's heartbreak, it will be worth it.
Thank you, students, for doing what adults have not been able to do -- stand up to lawmakers and demand change! When you turn 18, no doubt you will vote out those who refuse to stand up to gun lobbyists and vote in those who will protect a child's right to go to school without fear of death.
Adults, listen. Our kids are paving the way. We need to follow their lead and make change happen.
Amy Shore, LPC
FB page: @houston.teen.therapist
