Educating for Mass Shootings

 Subtopic: We need to take immediate action for the public safety of everyone including all students. 4 Minutes “Our classrooms are not safe. There are people bent on doing wrong, doing evil” (Edwards, Celisa) Gun violence has been a problem through the last couple of years in our society. The main point of the pro for gun control sat that the task of the government is keep the nation safety. Since the massacre of the 20 children at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 the demand for legislative action reached an urgent alarm and the gun control debate started in Congress. The number of children who have been shaken by gunfire in the places they go to learn exceeds the population of Eugene, Oregon. Thousands of schools conduct active-shooter drills in which kids as young as 4 hide in darkendes closets and bathrooms from imaginary murderers. In total, an average of school shootings per year is 10; a low of 5 in 2002 and a high of 15 in 2014. During the first months of 2018 they registered 11 shootings, making this year among the worst on record. At least 130 kids, educators, staff and family members have been killed in assaults during school hours, and another 254 have been injured. Schools in at least 36 states have experienced a shooting. Celisa Edwards, a teacher of an elementary of a small town at the outsides of Atlanta was concern about a gunman going into her school. She knows the procedures if a shooting was taken place in her school; lock the door and turn off the lights, but for her this wasn’t enough to protect elementary students. A simple metal wire with looped ends that could secure classrooms doors from the inside was her idea. The Portable Affordable Lockdown System has been installed in one Georgia school. A flood of school safety invention have hit the market in the recent years after the Sandy Hook shooting. Parents and teachers have came up with door barricades, bulletproof backpacks, ballistic whiteboards and online apps to monitor homicidal plots. This inventions are motivated by fear and a sense that policymakers have failed to safeguard schools. Cell phone text messages are being considered an other measure to alert thousands of students across the campus in case of an emergency. Technology would allow for live voice announcements as well as prerecorded messages. At many schools, officials want to send text messages to cell phones and digital devices as a faster, more reliable alternative to email. The March of Our Lives movement launched by survivors of the Parkland, Florida shooting has been boosted by a changing national mood and a generation that has put a new moral framework on the issue. This activist students announced dual campaigns: a summer tour to raise awareness and a voter registration drive to challenge politicians who oppose gun control measures. There is something about ours generation that is more gun-averse than other generations, which is why we should speak with authority. “If you tell people that this generation of teenagers is less than half as likely to get shot to death as 25 years ago, people will think you are crazy” (Males, Mike) Rebuttal: The 2nd Amendment gives the right to every American to bear Arms. If we take that away from the people, What does that say about the freedom and rights for all Americans? How do we defend ourselves? 1 Minute Response: We are just arguing to enforce the laws that already exist. We do understand the 2nd amendment and we also believe in the right to self-defense. We just want to make sure who is the person that haves access to firearms and why they want them. By the other hand, the 2nd Amendment was written on the 18th century and with much less the weapons that exist today. In this century, our century, we need to get laws so we can feel safe going to school, work or even just the movies without worrying if some random man will try to kill me. Frankel, Todd C. “School-Safety Fears Inspire Inventions.” Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2014, pp. A.10. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com. Cox, John W., and Steven Rich. “Scarred by School Shootings.” Washington Post, 25 Mar. 2018, pp. A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com. Zagier, Alan S. “Schools Weigh Cell Messages for Alerts.” Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO), 19 Apr. 2007. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com. Jonsson, Patrik. “After Mass Shootings, Students Hope to Change Sense of Siege..” Christian Science Monitor, 22 May. 2018, pp. n/a. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.