Gay Marriage

Control

article on CNN.com.

Those who are truly mentally ill and who suffer from psychosis are not responsible for their actions. The mentally ill often end up as targets for those who refuse to acknowledge that the availability of a firearm was a factor in their actions. Of the mass shootings between 2009 and 2013, in 57 percent of the cases there was a strong correlation between young males of lower socioeconomic status with histories of domestic violence. Only 11 percent of cases that involved a gunman had mental health issues according to an analysis by the National Coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

The United States doesn’t have a monopoly on crazy people, so why is it that we suffer from more gun violence than any other developed country?

Sixty percent of all U.S. homicides occur using a firearm, which is the 26th-highest rate in the world, according to the Washington Post Dec. 14 article. So the U.S. allows violent behavior with guns through its policies and lack of restrictions on stockpiles of ammunition, according to a 2013 New York Times article.

We should look towards the Australian precedent. Australia, like us, practiced similar regulations on firearms until a tragedy forced them to employ rapid, new gun violence prevention techniques.

In 1996, an Australian shooter killed 35 people in the seaside resort of Port Arthur with his semiautomatic rifle. Immediately after, the Australian prime minister banned assault rifles, restricted gun licensing and created national gun registration standards. He also used government funds to buy back the 650,000 assault weapons in circulation according to a 2012 article from ABC news.

In the past 18 years, the risk of dying from a gunshot in Australia has plummeted over 50 percent. The national homicide rate is one-thirtieth of that in the United States. Not a single mass shooting has occurred since the ‘96 Port Arthur Massacre, according to a 2012 article from ABC news.

Bullet control combined with gun control is the most effective way to curb gun violence, according to an article in the New York Times. The president has urged for more stringent restrictions on guns. These will include background checks on gun sales, reinstating an assault weapons ban, barring high-capacity ammunition magazines and armor-piercing bullets, new gun trafficking laws and more access to mental health institutions, according to an ABC article.

Tomorrow is a new day. Life will go on. Students will continue their normal routines, but with one exception. In the back of their minds, just out of reach, there will always be the fear of a possible shooting planted in their brains. Fear of an intruder. Fear of death. Fear of not knowing when they are safe. The only way to eradicate that fear is to take away the cause. Guns. Gay marriage currently legalized

Map by Anna Ciani

Gay Marriage: Let’s Cut the Cake

Same-sex marriage in politics and in society is slowly changing.

BY ANNA SCHROER FEATURES EDITOR

The cake is cut. Ringlets of white icing dance in twirls around the sides framing in the flattened buttercream icing. The guests have been served plates of chicken and salmon, the menu composed years in advance. The toasts have been made. Tears of elation were shed. The now married couple has been waiting for this moment for years. They were uncertain if they would ever have the chance to legally get married.

For the past five years the issue of same sex marriage has been a prominent topic, or more like argument, in politics. Politicians and citizens alike have argued whether people of the same-sex should be able to get married, trying to decide the relationship status of people they don’t even know. Though the aversion some people have towards this topic still exists by way of court, popular vote and by state legislature, 33 states now legally allow same-sex marriage. Soon maybe the rest of the 17 states that still ban it will reevaluate their views. Times are changing and the country has bigger things to worry about than to question of how a “traditional” couple is defined.

For years the Catholic church has stood against the topic of same-sex politics. This more traditional view associated with the Vatican was blown out of the water when in his recent statement Pope Francis issued a more progressive document that “used more welcoming language when discussing homosexuality and its place in the Church,” according to BBC news. Though the Catholic church still recognizes marriage as between a man and a woman, this statement is looking up towards a more progressive future with the Pope signalling “that he could see the Catholic church tolerating some forms of same-sex civil unions - though not marriage - when it comes to situations such as medical care and property for gay couples.”

The real question that should be asked is why someone else’s marital status matters to anybody else. Let’s set up a scene. There is a man walking down the street hand in hand with another man, they are both helping each other push a stroller that holds their child that they fought so hard to adopt. But this family can’t file jointly for taxes, have inheritance rights, the right to make medical decisions if their spouse is incapacitated, visit the other person in the ICU in a medical emergency, be required to pay child support, be on the other spouse’s insurance, have the right to property division in case of divorce or be recognized by the state as a married couple. These rights are granted to married couples. Though this couple may have a house together, a child together and a love for each other they are not legally married. So for now they are waiting for the day when they can be legally joined in marriage together.

Slowly, times are changing. Since October, 14 states have legalized same-sex marriage. In other states such as Kansas and Missouri standing gay marriage bans are being overturned by the Supreme Court calling such bans indefensible. On Nov. 11 the ban in Kansas was overturned. Samesex couples in the state are now able to be legally married, but Senator Sam Brownback is ready to fight back.

“I swore an oath to support the Constitution of the State of Kansas,” Brownback said in a statement in response to his opposition of gay marriage.

Love is love. Society and politics discriminate based on one’s sexual orientation and it is frankly something that should be in the past. We should let any couple, no matter if they are straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual finally cut a cake at their legalized weddings.