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Wake Up America

Your Facebook feud over your right to bear arms won’t save any lives.

By Anne & AnamesaPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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At 21 years old, all I know is being a student. All I know is going school, learning whatever curriculum I need to learn, and going home when my day at school is finished. I am very lucky that I have always made it back home.

Today I ask that you do not just “send your thoughts and prayers.” I ask you to not update your status with “my heart is so heavy.” Today I ask you to acknowledge that way too many times children have gone to school, as they do everyday, to learn their mandated curriculums, and did not return home. Too many parents are mourning the loss of their children, who died in a place where they should be protected.

Is this the America we want? Where parents can’t send their children to school confident that they are protected? Where children need to fear they can have their life taken away while taking their math test? Where is the rage about innocent children senselessly losing their lives? The country can be up and arms about protecting their gun rights but not about other people’s right to live?

We care more about protecting guns than we do our own children. We care more about blaming the opposite political party for why events like this continue to happen. We fight with one another on social media when we need to be fighting together to protect the children of this country.

I am 21 and still a student. I will be damned if I bring children into a world where a country will not make reforms to actively prevent school shootings. Prayers will only do so much. We know how to riot against police, we know how to riot against those of other races. We know how to riot to protect the lives of unborn children, but not the lives of children who are already living?

I ask that the people of this country WAKE UP. Fight for gun reform. Fight for our children to be better protected. Fight for there to be better mental health awareness, education, and services.

You should want it to be a difficult, prolonged process for a regular citizen to get a gun. You should want high levels of security in our schools. You should want our teachers, administration and students to be educated about mental health and have resources available to them to keep their mental health in a good and stable standing.

These things will take money, a lot of money. Taxes will probably need to increase and we will need to rethink how we budget our tax dollars. At the end of the day, wouldn’t you rather spend more money and know that no more children or school staff will suffer a senseless death in a place of education?

I leave you with this: stop wasting your time fighting with others about opposing political views and focus your time and energy learning the facts of each case and take time to reflect on how we can prevent these things from happening. It does not lie within a Republican or Democrat, it lies within the citizens’ anguish to protect the youth of this country. Examine other countries who have experienced any type of mass shooting and research what they did to prevent further mass shootings. See how many mass shootings those same countries have had afterwards. Recognize what is important and fight for it.

I believe the best way we can honor the victims of the numerous mass shootings that have taken place in this country by fighting for reform. By fighting for our fellow citizens and anyone else in the country to live their lives free from fear of having their life senselessly taken. These are the things we should be made about. These are the things we should be fighting for. Land of the free and home of the brave, yet our freedom is trumped by the continued accessibility to guns and our administration lacks the bravery to create change. Be hurt, mad, upset, enraged, scarred, disappointed, disgusted — be whatever you want, but focus those feelings into a desire to fight for change; urgent and much needed change.

I pray that anyone reading this may never face the trauma of involvement in one of these events. I pray that anyone reading this will never lose someone to senseless violence, especially by gun. I pray that we can demand change and receive it; create an America where the dreams are endless and do not include an end to mass shootings, because that has already been accomplished. I pray that in ten years I can open this article and read it as an issue from the past.

So far in 2018, there have already been 30 mass shootings and way too many innocent deaths. Is enough, enough now?

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About the Creator

Anne & Anamesa

blogger, content creator and mama

find me on socials: @anamesa_anne

Proud Zillenial

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