Chris
McDonnell, UK
christymac733@gmail.com
Previous articles by Chris Comments welcome here
March
7, 2018
Students inspire the
call for change By the time these
few words reach print, we will have moved on; that is the nature of our
fast-moving world. There is no doubt that the Ash Wednesday atrocity in
the Marjory Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is likely to be seen
as a watershed in the American story of the Second Amendment. It was another
significant marker in a long-standing story of gun availability to the
ordinary citizen, the right claimed through the Constitution to bear arms.
Unfortunately we are living in the time when the type of gun on sale has
greatly exceeded the power of those in earlier years. Living as we do
in the UK, we find it inconceivable that teenagers, too young to buy a
beer, can walk into a gun store and buy a killing machine intended for
rapid fire in a war zone. But that is the case in the US. The story of
Columbine (1999), Sandy Hook (2012) and now Douglas (2018) provides a
litany of tragedy with young lives taken with indiscriminate ease and
numerous families and communities left grieving. Altogether since 2013,
there have been over 300 school incidents involving guns. It doesn't bear
thinking about. Here in 1996, in
Dunblane, a Primary School was attacked with significant loss of young
children. The consequence was a considerable tightening of our gun laws
and, thank goodness, there has been no further such attack. At the same
time schools paid greater attention to their own security regarding
visitors and general identity checks. Not so, it seems,
in the US. The cause of such horror is placed firmly on the weapon holder,
not his legally easy access to the local gun store. The occupant of the
White House blamed 'mental illness' and didn't mention a word about his
chosen weapon, an automatic AR15. His speech to the
National Rifle Association at the recent CPAC, (Conservative Political
Action Conference) addressed his political grassroots, to loud, standing
applause and cheering from his audience. A matter of political opportunism
rather than Presidential leadership at a time of grief. There was much in
that speech that was despicable; I want to concentrate on one proposal,
that teachers should be armed as first-responders in the classroom. The
principle of such a suggestion I challenge. Having spent thirty seven
years of my professional life teaching in schools, the last twenty four as
a headteacher, I cannot imagine anything further from the vocation of
teaching. Can anyone begin to contemplate a classroom shoot-out between an
automatic weapon and a hand gun, drawn by a teacher in the middle of
explaining maths to a group of youngsters? Were it to come about the first
target would be the teacher if he or she were known to be possibly
carrying a gun. It would seem to
be more appropriate to attempt to kill the attacker than to take measures
to prevent the incident in the first place. With the failure
of 'adult' politicians to come up with a solution, the students have taken
up the challenge. Across the US, they have taken the path of protest to
the streets, demanding their voice be heard. They took their voice to the
White House and met with the President who, clutching his crib notes,
seemed to fail to understand the depth of their pain. Their articulate
response has been to their credit, even though it was said that they were
'actors' bussed in for the purpose. Shame on that suggestion. With their
example, the NRA has begun to lose business endorsements, maybe a first
indication of a change of tone. The time has come
for the principles of the NRA to be challenged and their political support
for the Republican party to be called to question. The $21M dollars given
to the 2016 Election Campaign was not insignificant. What can the
Church contribute to the discussion? At all levels our voice must be heard
and a defining position taken. We are quick - and rightly so - to condemn
abortion. This school crisis is also a matter of right to life and demands
courageous action. A couple of days after Douglas High School, I wrote
these few words. Loss He lay, sprawled on the floor she lay, untidily beside him. Two teenagers among many attending High School class lost to a killing machine built only for killing. Later, at a press conference mention is made of 'mental illness', no mention is made of the killing machine he held in his hands, no question is asked as to why he held it. Seventeen victims, an eighteenth later stood shackled, orange suited in a county court room. Not yet old enough to buy a beer but old enough to purchase, legally, his killing machine and in his incapacity, use it. May they rest in peace END
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