Gun Control Marching Students in Florida are Missing the Big Message

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

The shooting at a high school in Florida that left 17 dead have left students in America emotionally drained.  They have witnessed the horror of gun violence, and they've been told by the public school system, media, and other outlets that the only way to end such situations is through more gun control; and ultimately, the full confiscation of every gun in the country.

After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in an attempt to show solidarity with their fellow students nearby, Florida students from a neighboring school walked out of class to participate in their own protest against gun violence.

The Walkout included almost 50 teens who were armed with signs begging politicians to take action against gun violence with stronger legislation regarding gun control.

The hand-painted signs read things like "Prayers and condolences are not enough! Our government officials need to TAKE ACTION or STEP DOWN," and "protect our kids not your guns."

Many questioned why civilians are even allowed to purchase assault rifles (which is actually a false term regarding guns like an AR-15, which was the firearm  used by Nikolas Cruz, the gunman of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting only days ago.

"Nobody needs an AR-15 rifle for hunting," 14-year-old Shane Dale told the Huffington Post. "We need to get rid of assault rifles overall."

Sara Rodriguez, a 16-year-old student among the protesters also told the Huffington Post: "I want to end gun violence. They don’t pay attention to our voice and we’re really tired of staying silent. We are the future. We’re trying to make it but we can’t do it if they’re not listening."

These statements echo those made by the survivors of the shooting, who are urging politicians to put gun control laws in place.

The cries of emotion are based, unfortunately, on false information.  For example, the kid who claimed you don't need an AR-15 for hunting probably thinks the rifle is fully-automatic (pull the trigger, and a spray of bullets comes out), and that's just not true.  Fully automatic rifles, which are closer to the definition of what an "assault rifle" is, are already illegal.  As for not needing it for hunting, the only difference between an AR-15 and a common hunting rifle are cosmetic accessories that make it look more military.  The AR-15 essentially performs in the exact same manner as any other hunting rifle.

Locally, the students are not getting what they are calling for.  State legislators in Tallahassee, Florida, after being called upon to change the State's gun laws by protesting students, voted down a motion to take up a ban on "assault weapons" such as the AR-15 with a final motion vote of 36-71.

Democratic Representative Kionne McGhee asked for a procedural move that would have allowed the legislative body to consider the bill to ban assault rifles and large capacity magazines.

I get it.  The young people were overwhelmed with emotion.  We all have been.  I have nothing but sympathy and prayers for the dead, wounded, and frustrated.  And, I know they are claiming that thoughts and prayers are not enough.  They want action.

Rage, I think, is likely the word that best fits the feelings of the students, and those who have experienced gun violence through mass shootings.

The rage, however, is misplaced.  Guns did not cause the evil that took place on that high school campus in Florida.  The guns are no more the cause than cars are in cases of drunk driving.  If we begin banning big and scary cars and trucks that have a military look to them, it wouldn't even make a dent in the occurrence of drunk driving.

The cause of the shooting was not the tool used in the act of carrying out the violence.  The cause of the shooting is the reality that people are capable of evil, and what Nikolas Cruz did in Florida was evil.

He planned it out.  He carried it out.  He did something very evil, and we are angry that it happened.  We keep asking ourselves if it could have been stopped.  Is there a way that we can avoid such evil from happening in the first place.  The FBI has been criticized because they had information about Cruz that told them Cruz might be the kind of guy to carry out such madness.  Everyone knew that Cruz was capable of it, and people are saying that he should have been apprehended before he had the chance to carry out his fiendish plans.

Do we really wish to create scenarios where we arrest people before they do something unlawful?  Do we really wish to give government that kind of power?

My psychologist wife says that environment may have played a role in what happened. Family turmoil, and deaths in his family, may have led him to his moment of evil.  Then, there is the possible impact of violence in video games, violence in movies and on television, violent music lyrics, the influence of medications, social media, or perhaps he was indeed a victim of some kind of mental illness.  Could any of those things pose as a possible influence in someone doing something evil?

Absolutely.

But, let's also understand that millions of people are influenced by access to guns, turmoil in their private lives, exposure to violence in games or by the entertainment industry, are medicated for various reasons, and have been influenced by social media and even mental illness.  But, those people have not decided to pick up a firearm and kill 17 people.

To say that those things, or the presence of guns in our society, is totally and only at fault for what happened would be like having a study in a prison, finding out that most prisoners like broccoli, and then concluding that the consumption of broccoli will somehow send someone into a life of crime.  It's a ridiculous argument, as is every argument the liberal left keeps using regarding guns.

Guns, like bullying or violent messages in our daily lives, are not the root cause of what happened.  They may be influences, but nothing more.  Every influence in the entire life of Mr. Cruz may have been something that helped send him into a school setting to kill people, but we all have similar influences in our lives.  There was something, a thing that is different from the rest of us, that caused this young man to do what he did.

The reality is, good background, or bad background, guns, or not, in the end, none of those things matter as much as the fact that Nikolas Cruz, on his own, as an individual, made the decision to do what he did.

What makes us do the things we do?

A National Self-Defense Survey found that there are approximately 2.5 million defensive gun uses per year in the United States.

That, my friend, is a huge number.

Conclusion?

The way to stop bad guys with guns is to have more good guys with guns ready to do their thing in places where the mass shootings are happening.

Where are the mass shootings happening?

Ninety-eight percent of public mass shootings in this country occur in gun-free zones — the Florida school being one of them.  In other words, these shootings happen in places where the odds are against a good guy with a gun being present.

We don't need to outlaw guns, or tighten restrictions on guns.  We need more good guys with guns in our society, and we need to outlaw gun-free zone policies.

In other words, what's killing our students is not a lack of gun control measures, it's the presence of gun control measures.  The protesting students are literally calling for policies that will increase their chance of dying - but the reality is, they've been trained by the indoctrinating policies of public schools to demand exactly that.  They have been coached into believing that their safety can only occur if government is given the authority to increase its ruling fist over society.

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