Gun Control: How Safe Are Our Schools

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Bill Westbrook John Fritz Composition 1 GE117T Feb. 21 2012 GUN CONTROL: How Safe are Our Schools On the morning of April 4, 1999, two students, Dylan Klebold (18 years old), and Eric Harris (17 years old), of Columbine High School, went on a murder spree, killing 15 people and wounding 23 more. The deaths included 12 students, 1 teacher, and Harris and Klebold. For one hour these two very troubled and disturbed individuals, wielding such weapons as 9mm semi-automatic handguns and sawed-off shotguns, terrorized an entire school of students and faculty, shaking this nation to its very core. (“GHOSTS OF COLUMBINE”). Seung-Hui Cho (23 years old) was a seemingly smart, quiet person until the day of April 16, 2007, when he too went a mindless…show more content…
Here are some examples of policy gone wrong. Two ten year old students (boys) in Arlington, Virginia put soapy water in their teacher’s drink. The boys were suspended from school for three days after which the police were called, and at the teachers request, they were arrested and processed into the juvenile justice system. The case was eventually dismissed. In another incident, a nine-year-old student was walking to school and found a manicure kit that contained a one-inch knife. After the kit was discovered and the knife was found, the student was suspended for one day from school. Finally, a high school student was playing around at lunch time in the cafeteria of his school, and shot a paper clip with a rubber band at a classmate. The paper clip missed its target and hit a cafeteria worker. The worker received a small cut and the student was expelled from school. (“A System Gone…show more content…
Kids will be kids, and on that note, we should let them be kids. They are going to do things unintentionally, make mistakes, and hopefully learn from them. But to expel a student for a paper clip mishap, or soapy water in your drink, come on—do we not have a sense of humor or fun anymore? Do we want the youth of America just to be robots? Do not get me wrong: misbehaving should not go unpunished by any means, but I think there is a great, big, bold, black line between bringing a weapon, such as a gun, to school, and shooting a rubber band in the cafeteria. Both actions should be addressed, but not with equal punishment. I come from a family where “yes sir” and “no sir” were mandatory, from generation of “get your ass outside and play until the sun goes down and no in and out,” which makes it hard for me to understand why we as parents have come to fear the punishing part of parenting. We are so scared to “get on to” our children for fear they will hate us, that we have become passive. We do not pay attention to signs of behavior when they are right in front of us. I believe we need to take a stand, as parents, and get control back. We cannot be scared to put the gauntlet down. We are actually failing children and ourselves if we do not. Gun control should start with parents educating their children on safety, proper handling, and to understand right from wrong with

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