Oxford High School Shooting: The New Normal, or Should it be?

Here we are again. November 30, 2021 - The Oxford High School Shooting. Originally 3, now 4 dead, and 7 injured. How many times do we have to go through these shootings before any decisive action is taken regarding implementing a proper and more restrictive gun control system?

This is a difficult conversation that needs to be had, not just in your homes, not just in your towns, but throughout the whole country.

The 2nd Amendment gives us the right to possess firearms to protect ourselves. That doesn't mean that everyone should be able to get access to those firearms, especially if they are under the legal age to drink. The right to hold a gun should be treated the same way as allowing people to start drinking after they turn 21. Yes, having a gun doesn't affect the human body the same way alcohol does from the moment you consume it, but that doesn't mean that a gun isn't more deadly than having alcohol. So why is it that the age where a person can get a firearm is less than when a person can start drinking alcohol? Why do we allow teenagers who just turned 18 to possess a license to buy a firearm when we do not consider them old enough to drink yet? While yes, 18 is considered the age a person is a legal adult in this country, that doesn't mean we give them all the rights of an adult anyways, we only give them the ability to drive, vote, and work on their own. No one is allowed to drink until they are 21 because we cannot expect 18-year-olds to drink in moderation, nor allow them to do something stupid when they just started driving. If we have this mentality for alcohol, then I ask again, WHY DO WE NOT HAVE THIS FOR FIREARMS? Firearms are a responsibility that should be treated with high care so that shootings like these become a rare occurrence. Should 18-year-olds really be considered capable of handling a responsibility like that?

Now I'm not saying that no one should possess a gun, everyone has a right to decide how they would like to protect themselves. They have the right to keep their gun. However, we need to make sure that they are in the right state of mind to be purchasing a gun and obtain a CPL license. We also need to make sure that if we do get these guns, we keep them in a place where only we can access the guns, not any minors in the house or anyone who may take undue advantage of the gun. We need a better system to implement gun control, to prevent those minors who may be going through bullying or depression, so that way they may not end up doing something they will regret. Gun vendors and store sellers need to conduct extensive background and psychological checks to ensure that guns do not end up in the hands of people who are likely to commit mass shootings. Those who pass these checks and have minors or others in their household, need to conceal their firearm in such a way that these others will not be able to get these guns. Put it in a safe and keep the passcode to yourself. Have a place in your house where you can hide the gun, like in a hollow floorboard. Just do it in a way that these kids, these others are unable to get access to the guns. But overall, create a system that makes it harder for these guns to fall into the hands of these potential shooters.

We lost 4 teenagers today. 4 kids who were getting ready to go to college and build their lives and careers. Cut short, because we don't have a better, more restrictive gun control system in place in this country. This is the 28th shooting in 2021 alone. How many more kids have to lose their lives before something is done to ensure better gun control and prevent these major shootings? We need to recognize that guns are a privilege and responsibility, and we need to ensure that the right people in the right mindset are able to handle them. Do we need to have an entire school murdered by a mass shooter for people to start talking about this? How about an entire district? What will it take for real action to be taken with gun control?