by Chris Fazzari, staff writer
Enough. I’ve had enough. You have all heard by now of the 17 people who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on the 14th. Tragedies of this scale have become absurdly common in this country. It is unacceptable. All those people, all their stories, their futures, gone. 14 students, our age, just like us. Fears about what you will do after graduation should not be overtaken by fears of survival.
Columbine High School, April 20, 1999, two mentally ill teens entered the school with guns and bombs, killed 13 and then shot themselves. A product of horrendous access to mental health care and firearms that were far too easy to access. The first of far too many fatal mass shootings at schools. 15 people gone, 15 too many. Countless lives that will never be the same, both physically and mentally. We can only imagine what would have happened if lawmakers did their job and enacted common-sense gun legislation after that shooting, to prevent something like that from ever happening again.
In 1996 in Australia, they had a devastating mass shooting that killed 35 people. 12 days later they introduced the National Firearms Act so that nothing like that would ever happen again. Guess what, it worked. That approach has worked in every other developed nation. This is a uniquely American problem and I’ve had enough of it. We can change. We have to change.
There have been 25 fatal mass school shootings since Columbine. Way, way too many. Even then, that number doesn’t include the suicides and other acts of gun violence that have a much wider impact, including here at River Hill.
Being a high schooler today is scary. The intense pressure put on teenagers is immensely damaging. We all pretend to hide it well. But sometimes people snap and can’t take it. Because it’s too much, too unhealthy. Easy access to firearms only worsens the problem, but none of us want to admit to ourselves how scary it is. We don’t want to think about all of these tragedies, knowing very well that River Hill could be the next name all over the news.
Far too many communities have had to suffer from these tragedies. Tragedies that could have been prevented. Hundreds of kids who could have graduated; countless teens picking up the phone to call a therapist instead of picking up a firearm.
We should have started the conversation April 19, 1999, before Columbine. We should have fixed the problem many times after that. But nothing has happened. Our leaders have continuously failed to act, taking payments from the NRA, while our peers are dying and we are left scared and feeling alone.
It’s time for action. We may not be able to vote, but we can show our power. Staff and students, join me on March 14th for the National School Walkout. At 10 am, walkout and congregate at the front of the school. Let’s show the world that we can make the world stop, we have power. Show them that we demand common sense gun reform and a revitalization of our country’s mental health system. Let’s show them that, We the teenagers of the United States of America are entitled to life.
As Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote in Hamilton,
“If you stand for nothing… what’ll you fall for.”