In Focus
I waited for a while to look at anything related to the Covenant school shooting in Tennessee. I couldn’t bare to look at yet another school shooting, more people, children, dead.
But what finally pushed me to do it was seeing a video clip of students storming the Capitol.
At 10:13 a.m., about the same time the first 911 calls came in, students walked out of their schools and marched on the Capitol grounds to protest for better gun control.
Firearms recently became the number one cause of death for children and teens in the United States, surpassing motor vehicle deaths. This is a painful statistic.
But these kids were on a mission and they were not backing down. They entered the Capitol and into the balcony of the legislature and started protesting. Three representatives backed them up, Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. The house speaker told them they were out of order and called a recess.
In the videos, legislators were escorted out, through the throngs of kids, protected by State Troopers. These legislators were scared of the kids!
Now, because these legislators backed up the kids, two were officially expelled from the house. Really? So free speech and democracy are dead?
The kids spent the day chanting, singing inside and outside of the Capitol building with signs in hand. Some of the things they chanted should make not only lawmakers, but everyone listen.
“More graduations, not funerals.”
“Blood on your hands”
And my personal favorite: “You ban books, you ban drag, kids are still in body bags!” Ouch. That should get under your skin.
During some of the interviews with students, one said “I am tired of my life being put second to a firearm.” If that doesn’t catch your attention, you have no soul.
Kids, not only in Tennessee but across the U.S. are tired of going to school scared, wondering if they are going to be killed if a shooting were to happen at their school.
The shooter shot 152 rounds in 14 minutes. Six dead. Those 152 rounds could have done so much more damage. Thank goodness they didn’t!
I am tired of this. When will there be actual change to address this issue? I stand by the mental health needs of the country, as well as the right to bear arms, but there is no balance. These lines are constantly intersecting, putting the legally obtained firearms in the hands of the unstable. How do we fix this? How do we address the growing mental health concerns with not enough people to help? Is there even a way to change gun laws to fix this? There is no easy answer. There is no way everyone will agree or be satisfied with whatever the solution is.
How do we put a child’s life first?
