Enough is enough

Lax gun control is killing kids; teachers can’t take anymore

Protestors+from+the+nationwide+March+For+Our+Lives+protest+on+March+14+2018+gather+in+front+of+the+Texas+state+capital.+March+For+Our+Lives+was+prompted+by+the+Parkland+shooting+in+Florida.+Since+then%2C+there+have+been+165+school+shootings+in+the+United+States.+

Mads Olsen

Protestors from the nationwide March For Our Lives protest on March 14 2018 gather in front of the Texas state capital. March For Our Lives was prompted by the Parkland shooting in Florida. Since then, there have been 165 school shootings in the United States.

Amy Smith, guest columnist
March 30, 2023

If your response to Monday’s Covenant School shooting in Nashville is “it’s not just guns,” just scroll on by. This is my cry from my teacher-heart and my grandma-heart.

I’m not interested in why you think it’s not the guns. I’m an English teacher, but I can read data. It’s the guns.

A protester holds up a sign at the March 14, 2018 March For Our Lives. (Mads Olsen)

As a teacher, I’m exhausted. The book bans, the curriculum overhauls that ignore our history, the attacks on teachers, the hours of unpaid labor—they all make this job untenable. But on Tuesday morning I went back to school after another shooting.

In my state, politicians are more concerned with controlling drag queens than they are with controlling the No. 1 killer of children. The thing about hobbies is that if my hobby was the No. 1 killer of children, I would find a new hobby.

There is nothing about a “well-regulated militia” that supports semi-automatic weapons. Do not tell me you care about life when you refuse to regulate weapons to protect the children I teach. Your Second Amendment rights are not more important than the lives of my students.

More on school shootings
As the time between mass school shootings have passed and as the shootings become more and more part of our everyday reality, we have become desensitized to the fact that 20 children under the age of 8 were gunned down and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut almost 10 years ago. How have we not done more?
A Band-Aid for a bullet wound
Actor and activist Matthew McConaughey was among the speakers at the #MarchForOurLives in downtown Austin on March 24, 2018, which attracted more than 10,000 to the Capitol today. “This is an American issue, McConaughey said of gun control. It’s a Texan issue. It’s a legal and law-abiding gun owner issue. It’s a mother issue. It’s a father issue. And, quite literally, this is our children’s issue. McConaughey also said that consensus leading to action should be above politics. “My hope here is that we can find a common ground on what I see as a very much a common-sense issue. This is an issue anchored in purpose for all of us. It’s not anchored in politics. Photo by Madison Olsen.
Banning guns is not a panacea
Students from schools all across AISD raise signs and chant as the march towards the Capitol Building as part of the National Student Walkout to protest gun violence on April 20. “The reason I came is because three of my friends have died because of gun violence in the last two months,” Robert Spong said. “It is a defining issue and, [from] what I’ve seen today, I really think we’re going to make a change.” Photo by Kristen Tibbetts.
We need gun-control reform not gun-control debate