Enough Is Enough by Miranda Doller

          On February 14, 2018, the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting occurred.  It was one of the biggest massacres in America since Columbine and Sandy Hook. It took 17 lives, 14 students and 3 teachers.  The survivors of the shooting, kids my age, took upon themselves the responsibility of raising awareness and calling the nation's attention on gun control.  

          All across America, students demanded stricter gun control. Using the hash tag #NeverAgain and #EnoughIsEnough on Twitter, they spread the word. Thousands walked the streets of Washington, D.C. for the March for Our Lives movement to make themselves heard. Unfortunately, a little over a year after the mass shooting, little has been achieved: 350 shootings occurred since Parkland. Today I read that a survivor from that shooting, Sydney Aiello, took her life. She suffered from PTSD and survivor's guilt. She was just 19 years old. 

          One of the safest countries in the world, New Zealand, was in the news this week.  On March 15, 2019, during Friday Prayer, in two different attacks to mosques, 50 innocent lives were taken. The man responsible for the crimes (whose name is not mentioned on purpose), wrote a 74-page manifesto "validating" his acts. Hate is written all over it: he hated Muslims, he hated immigrants, he hated refugees that seek a safer place to live. As a result of the attacks, within a week, New Zealand's Parliament banned military-grade weapons and his manifesto has also been banned from being shared and posted. 

           This past week, we have been reading and talking about Frankenstein. The topics of love and caring for one another were mentioned during these class discussions. New Zealand's recent decision to ban automatic weapons was reached in just a few days. The parliament of New Zealand clearly cares for their citizen's safety, making their decision out of love and sympathy for not only the Muslim community, but the whole country as well. I wish our country could take a step back and follow in the steps of New Zealand, not completely banning guns, but adding restrictions to those who can own them as well as banning weapons of war, out of love and safety for the citizens of the United States.