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Written by Venus Aradhya, 15, Bellevue, Washington
Almost everything in this world is corrupt. Our governments put up a face to protect us, but in reality, their goal is to boost the economy and gain money through us, the people, and their investments. Some of the money does go back into helping us, but it is main used as a show off and power tactic to assert dominance over other countries. Yes, our country, although supposedly a democracy, does not serve the greater good of the people. However if the country does not serve us well and we see issues, then we will turn on it.
It is a contract.
In this contract, we are giving up some of our rights and helping the country flourish in response for two things: our health and safety. That’s it. When our country can’t accomplish this, we need to speak up because otherwise nothing will change.
The deaths that are occurring are crimes against people, not the country. It is our lives at risk, and nothing will be done until we call for change. Gun crimes need to be dealt with swiftly. But the problem is, why do we always punish them after the price is paid? We need to go at the root and stop supplying this guns in safely.
Now for everyday people like you and me, why do we need guns? It’s for our safety right? But if everyone starts getting guns for their safety, this is what leads to the deaths in the first place, and this is why guns are the leading cause of deaths in the country with almost 50k a year. Say we banned guns (not sustainable but a hypothetical situation) then nobody would have a quick weapon to kill with, they’d have to resort to options that can’t do mass damage like knives, bombs, etc. However, if we made them only available to the people who are supposed to keep one of our fundamental rights, safety, then it’ll be much harder for those wanting to cause harm to receive the tools needed.
For me, in the ideal world, if we could work on developing a weapon like a tranquilizer which would be non lethal yet knock out a person from a good distance, this would solve all our problems. We could own this safely without so many dying yet conserve our own safety and police could have this too. I don’t think we want our rights taken away, but it isn’t. We wouldn’t let anyone own things like bombs which are meant for mass damage, so since many are using guns for this, I think we need to have a change here.
There is clearly a problem if I’m going to school and I need to practice monthly or bimonthly what to do if a shooter comes. There is clearly a problem if I know many personally in nearby schools who have dealt with tragic school shootings. There is clearly a problem if I need to go home and hear about several others who are dead because of being shot. There is clearly a problem with our country if other developed countries rarely have this issue while for us it is so normalized.
We can’t just call it a day and say there’s nothing we can do because there is something. You’re right, our country won’t do anything unless it directly harms the economy. But where you’re wrong is that it’s the government who won’t do anything. But people like me and you, we ARE our country. This is a democracy that only flourishes for the benefit of us all, and if we want to solve this problem for the benefit of everyone, we need to be willing to compromise and speak up.
