EDITORIAL: Students must use current momentum to enact real gun reform

Opinion

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 6 • MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2018

{OUR VIEW} EDITORIAL: Students must use current momentum to enact real gun reform

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. North Park Elementary School. Umpqua Community College. Sandy Hook Elementary School. Virginia Tech University. Columbine High School. Tucson. Chicago. Detroit. Los Angeles. Baltimore. New York City.

In many communities, gun violence and the fear that comes with it have become almost as normal as paying the bills at the end of the month. From 1999 to 2016, 26,000 children and teenagers under 18 have been killed by gunfire, and gun-related injuries are the third leading cause of death for children, according to The Washington Post. In other communities, people are more and more frequently learning firsthand the true devastation that guns can cause.

The one thing that remains the same across all of these communities is the impact that gun violence has on the younger generation; children, hoping to make it to adulthood. According to the Brady Campaign, “Every day, 46 children and teens are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention.”

Every student has the potential to be affected by this issue. Students, many of whom are in the thick of everyday gun violence, are working hard to educate themselves, hoping they live long enough to enact change. As the rally cry of the March for Our Lives was shouted across the world, it is high time that everyone, not just those who have already been affected by gun violence, joins the movement led by students, for students.

It is important to remember that this is not a new problem, nor is it a new movement. The shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 sparked debates on access to guns, but led to very little actual policy change. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was thought to be the catalyst needed for stricter regulations to be passed yet, despite gaining national attention, the movement that followed resulted in little to no change on a federal level.

Moreover, marginalized communities — particularly communities of color and low income communities — that face gun violence on a daily basis have historically had their calls for help in reducing the number of weapons on the street fall on deaf ears. Where other movements at least had the benefit of media coverage, these people have only had each other to turn to.

What makes this milestone in the movement different from past attempts is the fervor with which students — the population most directly affected by gun violence — have risen up with clear, concise demands for common sense gun reform. Platforms such as the March for Our Lives not only reinforced the need for gun control within schools, but also a more broad application within city streets.

In Florida, as a result of relentless student lobbying, a person must now be 21 to purchase any kind of firearm; moreover, they have to wait three days to do it. This is a first step, sparked by young and powerful voices.

So what else does advocacy that works look like? Voting is considered to be the strongest tool in the social movement toolbox. In North Carolina, gun money runs deep. Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr are two of the biggest beneficiaries of the National Rifle Association. In fact, Burr received more money in 2016 than any other candidate in the U.S. Congress. Although neither are up for reelection this midterm, U.S. Representatives as well as members of the NC General Assembly are.

Every member of the General Assembly is up for reelection during the upcoming midterm election cycle. Furthermore, each member’s full voting history is available on the General Assembly’s website and sample ballots are also readily available. Finding out where candidates stand on gun control is not only easy, but vital in casting an informed vote.

NC State hosts students from all North Carolina districts and many other states. Whether your ballot is cast in your home district or in Raleigh, you have an influence on this election and this issue. If you turn 18 on or before election day, which this year is Nov. 6, then you are eligible to vote in the primaries — you are eligible to influence this issue. Twenty-six thousand people in the last two decades never received that chance.

The unsigned editorial is the opinion of the members of Technician’s editorial board, and is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief.

Admissions should encourage high school students’ participation

On Feb. 26, the University Admissions Office released a statement regarding prospective NC State students saying that “peaceful protests by high school students who seek to find solutions to the tragedy of school shootings will not have an impact on their admission decision.” The message was released a month ago, but given recent events, its impact is more relevant than ever.

By sending this message to the prospective students of NC State, the Admissions Office has done two main things: they have demonstrated that they care immensely about current issues and have incentivized peaceful protest in order to pave the way for a solution to be found, while also paving the way for future successes if this measure is taken into further contexts and different issues.

Their decision comes after the Parkland, Florida shooting, and the national outcry to find a solution to gun violence. It’s even more appropriate given that this Saturday, the March for our Lives took place in Washington, D.C., with over 800,000 participants, in addition to 800 separate marches throughout the nation, including in Raleigh. The march aims to promote awareness for the issue of gun violence and pushes for better gun control laws and gun reform to help prevent future shootings.

NC State did not take sides on this issue in their message to students. It instead focused on encouraging students to work toward a solution, without giving any implication as to what that solution should be.

This is ideal. In its message, NC State has managed to encourage (or at least not punish) civic engagement among high school students, while also not taking a stance to support a specific proposed solution. For an issue like gun violence it may seem silly to not take one side or another, but it sets a helpful precedent for more divisive issues where admissions may decide to ignore punishments resulting from applicants engaging in peaceful protest.

NC State admissions doesn’t need to stop at just gun control. High school students can be directly affected by issues like birth control, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sexual assault, and many more. Simply the fact that many high school seniors are voting-age citizens of the U.S. entitles them to be able to express their opinions on any issue they deem relevant without fear of ruining their chances for college.

Admissions needs to release a follow-up statement specifying that peaceful protests regarding issues beyond gun violence will not have an impact on admissions. A statement like this can help encourage peaceful civic engagement and protesting among high school students, as well as broadening the spectrum of the issues which NC State cares to work toward a solution on.

Lastly, NC State can do more than just not penalize prospective students, it can even go so far as to reward prospective students who participate in such protests. NC State admissions should view speaking out about issues as a show of a healthy involvement in the community and value it much

like they would any other extracurricular activity when considering a prospective student; making it a positive contribution towards their application. NC State admissions, and all other university admissions, need to prefer students who speak Joseph Rivenbark out strongly for what they care about. Speaking out about issues that affect them as a citizen and a future voter is a fantastic example of making an Correspondent impact in a healthy democracy. Protests are an excellent form of civic engagement and should be acknowledged. NC State admissions is in a unique position to incentivize behavior that will help us all. More than that, if the admissions office truly prides itself in finding solutions, it should recognize their opportunity to pave the way towards a solution on gun violence and any other issues that high school and college students care deeply about. By encouraging students to get involved in public debates, admissions can shape future students to truly become the next generation of leaders for our society.

Opinion

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 7 • MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2018

Students: In order to preserve our future, we must protect our present

Hundreds of thousands of people, packed tightly on a three-quarter mile stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue. Hours of standing, chanting, jostling, waiting, with a whole congregation of people searching for justice just outside the Capitol Building. The March for Our Lives on March 24 in Washington, D.C., was a rally cry heard across the nation — across the world.

And while the crowd consisted of a people diverse in race, class, gender and, perhaps most widely, age, the speakers on stage all had two things in common: all of them were under 20 years old, and all of them had been personally affected by senseless gun violence.

Cameron Kasky, Trevon Bosley, Delaney Tarr, Sarah Chadwick, Edna Chavez, Alex Wind, Zion Kelly, David Hogg, Naomi Wilder, Mya Middleton, Matt Post, Christopher Underwood, Jaclyn Corin, Ryan Deitsch, Aalayah Eastmond, Sam Fuentes, Alex King, D’Angelo McDade, Matthew Soto, Emma Gonzalez.

These speakers — students, children, ranging in age from 11 to 19 years old — have been, and will continue to spearhead change in this country and around the world.

That children are the future is a notion that has existed for generations, across political party divides and socioeconomic boundaries. Children are, after all, theoretically malleable; they’re learning and experiencing the world in real time, while relying on adults, or those with more experience and knowledge, to put everything into context for them. It is this reliance that has given said adults the illusion that in providing context, they can control the narrative in which their children live.

However, as much as adults consider children to be the future — insofar as to carry out their wills and demands — what we’re seeing today is children being forced into quasi-adulthood. These are children who are taking a firm grasp of the present and using their own knowledge and experience to put events in context and instigate change.

This kind of youth-led action and activism is not a new thing, particularly in this country, and especially not for marginalized communities and communities of color. Children have been underestimated by adults for practically all of history, but, as the Supreme Court stated in their ruling for Tinker v. Des Moines, “Students don’t ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.’”

Just as youth-led movements have led to landmark changes around the country throughout history, the March for Our Lives and the students organizing it have already been the catalysts for positive change in the fight for gun control.

In the 40 days since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the majority Republican legislature and Republican governor Rick Scott in Florida have already passed a law tightening restrictions around the purchase and use of guns in the state. Although the law doesn’t address many of the concerns students still have about the use of guns, it’s certainly a step toward reform.

On a national scale, the President announced Friday, just one day before the March for Our Lives, that his administration is working to issue a ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows semi-automatic weapons to mimic automatic fire. These steps, miniscule as they may be, are only being taken because of the relentless advocacy and even lobbying of students from Parkland and across the country who have been permanently affected by gun violence or the fear thereof.

In their speeches at the march, the survivors from Stoneman Douglas emphasized repeatedly that the march, and this movement as a whole, is only the beginning of a revolution taking hold of the nation. “The march is not the climax of this movement; it is the beginning … We must protect, educate and inspire the future,” Kasky said.

Alongside Stoneman Douglas students, speakers from communities historically ravaged by gun violence in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Brooklyn reminded march attendees that they and their peers have grown

up with constant fear and paranoia, not only within their schools but also within their communities and outside of their homes. Zion Kelly, whose twin brother Zaire was a victim of gun violence in New York, recognized the way the fear of gun violence permeAditi ates the everyday lives of children across the Dholakia nation. “I am here to represent the hundreds Opinion Editor of thousands of students who live every day in constant paranoia,” Kelly said. At the end of the day, it is children who, at the expectation of upholding our future, carry the burden for change, and thus must be the ones to organize and lead efforts to achieve said change. Why today’s adults are so surprised at the way the children, upon whom they have placed the burden of the future, are taking such fierce hold of the present, is beyond me. One thing is for sure: this truly is just the beginning. This movement is a movement that is by students, for students, all of whom have been or have the potential to be affected by gun violence. In the words of Christopher Underwood, an 11-year-old speaker who, at age five, lost his older brother to gun violence, “For me, I would like to not worry about dying.” Students should not have to be concerned about whether or not they will die in school, outside of their home, on the playground, in the streets. At this point in their lives — our lives — getting an education and living out every moment should be the utmost priority.