Walk up not out won’t solve school shootings – The Cauldron

By Ben Frederick

In the wake of the Parkland school shooting in mid-February, hundreds of thousands of students held a walk out from school to express their views on gun control. Kids are tired of being the victims of these mass murders and have finally said enough is enough.

No sane person would disagree that school shootings need to stop. However, there are many different ideas on how to stop them. Most people believe guns are the problem. Guns give people the ability to kill a large amount of people in a short amount of time. The March For Our Lives supported this argument, as well as the kids who participated in the walk out one month after the Parkland shooting.

However, there are other ideas on how to stop school shootings. Gun activists think more guns will solve the issue. President Donald Trump thinks that if we militarize the schools, school shootings will be a thing of the past. The National Rifle Association and many guns rights supporters agree with him.

One father of a child killed at the Parkland shooting believes in the “walk up” solution instead of the walk out solution. He said that if kids are friendlier and talk to people they don’t normally talk to, the number of school shootings will go down. He also stated that if kids are more open to others and include others, no one will feel left out.

He is using the argument of mental health. That was the case for the Parkland shooting, but that’s not the case for all school shootings. When  it is the case, it shifts the responsibility of the shooter’s mental health onto other young, vulnerable students. The argument blames the victims for not fixing their classmate’s broken mind.

Regardless of that flaw, even if kids are included and have friends, there is still a chance some may shoot up a school. Some people just want to watch the world burn.

A kid may have friends and be involved but still want to kill people for a hundred different reasons.

I agree that we need to have more inclusive schools and be nicer to each other. That would make the world a better place in general. Every human being should be kind, walk up, talk to someone they do not know and get to know them, but this can not be the solution to school shootings and mass shootings.

It will not fix the problem at the source. High powered assault rifles are still too easy to come by. If a student really wants to cause mass harm to a large amount of people, they can. Semi-automatic rifles are too easy to come by. America needs to fix this problem first before it tries to use another solution.

Yes, Americans should be nicer to each other, but this country needs to restrict use and accessibility of high powered firearms first. America needs to do this, so we stop losing innocent kids who never get to experience life because a small minority wants to keep their guns because guns are cool.