12 FEBRUARY 22, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
We’re with the kids. We must do something about guns in America
Yes, it’s time to talk about it. Yes,
it’s time to confront our problem.
Yes, it’s time to fi nd a solution.
The “mindless menace” of gun violence
struck our country again last
week with the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School
in Parkland, FL. Seventeen victims,
both students and faculty, were cut
down by a 19-year-old former student
with a history of mental turmoil who
somehow managed to legally buy his
weapon of mass destruction, an AR-15
assault rifl e. It’s a device with just one
purpose: to kill as many people as
possible, as quickly as possible.
In the days afterward, however,
we’ve witnessed something truly remarkable.
The survivors of the Parkland
shooting — students, teachers,
parents — aren’t retreating into grief.
They’re collectively angry at what
happened, and how their government
failed to prevent it from happening.
They’re taking a lead in a nationwide
movement to fi nally get the federal
government to do something to beef
up our gun laws and keep weapons out
of the hands of dangerous people.
“Every single person up here today,
all these people should be home grieving,” Douglas student Emma Gonzalez
said at a rally in Fort Lauderdale,
FL, on Feb. 17. “But instead we are up
here standing together because if all
our government and president can do
is send thoughts and prayers, then it’s
time for victims to be the change that
we need to see.”
Queens cannot let the Parkland
shooting survivors stand alone in
this cause — and, if the letters we’ve received
in recent days from our readers
are any indication, the borough stands
with Parkland and wants to be part of
the change our country needs.
THE COUNTERARGUMENTS
TO GUN CONTROL JUST
DON’T STICK
Still, the naysayers are out there
committed to keeping the bloody
status quo in check. They present
the same fl awed arguments for doing
nothing to stop the next mass killing
from taking place.
Here are just a few of their arguments,
and our counter-arguments
to them:
1.) “New gun laws won’t work, because
criminals will wind up getting
weapons anyway.” The existing gun
laws have some eff ectiveness; even
with mass shootings, gun homicides
have dropped over the last 25 years
with the passage of the Brady Law in
1993. Still, more must be done to close
loopholes that allow those with mental
illnesses, those with prior criminal
records and those under 21 years of
age to legally purchase fi rearms.
2.) “Our country must do more
for mental illness rather than gun
control.” We agree that America tends
to ignore mental health all too oft en,
and more programs are needed to provide
treatment to people in distress. It
should be noted, however, that mental
illness is not exclusive to this country;
people suffer from mental illness
across the globe, and mass shootings
aren’t nearly as frequent in nations
with stricter gun laws than our own.
3.) “What about all those violent
video games? Aren’t they a bad infl
uence on our kids?” We’ll leave that
question to parents. Again, though,
“Call of Duty” is played not just in the
United States but also in nations like
Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan
— where mass shooting frequencies are
extremely low. Those countries, not
coincidentally, have strong gun laws.
4.) “The only way to stop a bad guy
with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
The infamous words of National Rifl e
Association President Wayne LaPierre
following the Newtown massacre in
2012 were disproven in Parkland,
FL. As the Daily News reported,
the shooter never encountered the
school’s armed security guard. You
might ask, “Well, why not arm the
teachers or assign more guards?”
First, to suggest that the answer to
the nation’s gun violence problem is
to have more armed Americans is as
silly as suggesting that drinking will
cure alcoholism, or smoking more
cigarettes will cure a smoker’s lung
cancer. Second, our schools (at least in
Queens) already have enough guards;
some even have metal detectors. Must
our schools feel like prisons in order
to keep our kids safe? That seems to be
an unreasonable standard.
5.) “Any gun regulation is an
assault on our Second Amendment
rights.” The amendment itself is
vaguely worded, yet is prefaced by
the term “a well-regulated militia
being necessary to the safety of a
free state.” We’re not justices of the
Supreme Court, but nothing in that
terminology suggests that regulation
of any kind is null and void. It should
also be noted that the amendment
was written at a time when the most
deadly gun at the time was a musket
that took about 35 seconds to reload
and refire. The AR-15 can fire 45
rounds a minute.
6.) “Only liberals and Democrats
want gun control.” An October 2017
poll by Politico and Morning Consult
found that majorities of both Republicans
and Democrats want tougher
gun regulations. More than 8 in 10 of
all those polled want bans on assault
weapons, high-capacity magazines
and bump stocks like the one used in
the Las Vegas massacre. Let’s also note
that in 1996, it was a conservative-led
Australian government that enacted
tough gun control in the wake of mass
shootings there. Those laws led to
decreases in gun-related crimes, homicides
and suicides in the years since.
‘THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS’
AREN’T ENOUGH
ANYMORE — AND NEVER
WERE
The cycle of gun violence in America
cannot go on any longer. We’ve run
the cycle repeatedly over the last 20+
years, from Columbine to Newtown
and all the other points of mass death
in between.
After Parkland, we seemed
destined to repeat it again — the
“thoughts and prayers” tweets from
politicians, including those fi rmly
in the pocket of the National Rifl e
Association, were as predictable as
they were revolting.
The outrage from Parkland is
something new to the American mass
shooting experience; the attention it’s
received gives a glimmer of hope that
maybe, fi nally, at long last, something
will be done.
But we can’t let Parkland become
a forgotten tragedy. Enough gun violence
victims have died in vain.
We urge our readers to not only contact
their local lawmakers to support
new gun regulations, but to also take
part in March for Our Lives activities
in the weeks ahead. You can learn
more about that on the opposite page.
EDITORIAL
ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
Assistant Classifi ed Manager
MARLENE RUIZ
Reporter
RYAN KELLEY
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