What's the Cost Of One Bullet?
March 21 2018 – Tamara Estes
Written by Stacey Khizder
A few weeks ago, students from coast to coast walked out of their classrooms to make a statement. In response to the tragic Parkland school shooting that left 17 people dead, student activists are demanding gun control reform. Their symbolic and sudden absence from their classrooms has caught many people's attention.
Gun control is a highly controversial issue in the United States. Thousands of Americans have lost their lives due to gun violence in recent years. Due to their lack of action in response to these alarming statistics, the GOP doesn't seem to be phased. We have to be honest about why.
America's politicians receive millions from the National Rifle Association. When money and big donors get involved with politicians and campaigns, there's always a favor to be returned. In this case, the NRA funds a majority of GOP leaders with the expectation that they don't implement any policies that will hinder their profitable gun sales. It's a shame that money and greed is valued more than staying true to the Republican 'pro-life' stance.
When thinking of the best measures to implement gun control, comedian Chris Rock has an idea: "If a bullet costs $5,000, there would be no more innocent bystanders."
3 comments
I think this is an absolutely phenomenal movement. I am a public high school English in a poor very rural predominantly “white” school district in extreme Southern Illinois. This is my nineteenth year in the classroom. It is in the same county in which I was born, raised, attended school, and graduated from high school in 1992. I love my small community, but there are lots of troubled adults with low intelligence, and then the schools see that in their children. There is a high rate of children living with grandparents or another relative, not a biological parent. Our high school students fight many demons, like drugs, poverty, racism taught at home, abuse from an early age, depression, anxiety, cutting, suicidal behavior, and relationship barriers. The lack of mental health education and support is appalling, so I am constantly talking to my students about it and incorporating it in any way I can into literature I chose and teach and any writing activities. Our high school is just now in the first stages of discussion between our schools board president and the spokesman of our three member board of county Commissioners to possibly hire and train a school resource officer through our county’s sheriff’s department to have in place for the 2019-2020 school year. This is at a cost of only $23,000.00 per year. As a teacher at our high school, which has no metal detectors and has the back of the building open and unlocked all during the school day, I am very passionate about doing all I can to make sure this happens. My seventeen-year-old son is a junior at that school, so I am a terrified parent. The original 1950s wooden door frame and door of my classroom swell at the beginning of each school year until the weather changes about the end of October. This means that not only can I not lock my door, during that time, I can’t even get it to close all the way. All I have to protect my students- class sizes of around 20-23 – is a can of hornet spray and a baseball bat that are under my desk. I’m a tough teacher; I do not tolerate disrespect. What’s to keep a former or current student who has issue with me from just walking in the unlocked back door, walking down the hall, opening the door to my classroom, and opening fire on me? But much, much worse, on my classroom full of students? How am I to protect them when I am set up to fail and the odds are in the favor of the perpetrator? This haunts me every morning as I drive to school; I pray daily that our school does not fall subject to a school shooting. But I know that it is SO possible! All the conditions are there. Honestly, it’s amazing that it hasn’t happened yet, but I thank God each day as a parent and a teacher responsible for her students that it hasn’t. I continue to pray that it never will. I am purchasing this T-shirt and will proudly wear it to school as soon as I get it. When my students ask what it means (and they will), I will explain it to them. Thank you. 😍
The costs of bullets are our children’s lives Let’s not lose one more life to gun violence
I am assisting our local students with a March For Our Lives event here in Corvallis Oregon. I wonder how many other TYT members are doing the same in their towns.
Also, I hope you will play the students’ anthem “Shine” as sung by the MSD Drama Club at the CNN Town Hall during your live broadcast. Sorry, I am lousy with getting links.
“Together we will shine a light!” Go TYT!