• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

December 17, 2012 Opinion

Clearly, A Conversation About Gun Control in the United States Has to Happen

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Franchesca Warren

For fifteen years Franchesca taught English/Language Arts in two urban districts in Atlanta, Georgia, and Memphis, Tennessee. Increasingly frustrated with decisions being made about public education from people who were not in the classroom, in 2012 she decided to start a blog about what it was really like to teach in public schools. In the last four years, The Educator's Room has grown to become the premiere source for resources, tools, and strategies for all things teaching and learning. To learn more about Franchesca Warren's work, please visit www.franchescalanewarren.com.
  • Abbott Elementary: Development Week was a Mess! - September 28, 2022
  • Frederick Douglass: “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” - July 4, 2021
  • President Biden Pushes For Teachers To Get Their COVID Vaccine Dose By March - March 2, 2021
  • We’re Just People Who Don’t Want To Be Killed! A Student Reflection About Insurrection - January 26, 2021
  • Betsy DeVos Resigns: Most Teachers Say Good Riddance - January 8, 2021
  • Class Divide in Emergency Learning: A Crisis Overseas - September 10, 2020
  • Practicing Self-Care in the Midst of Chaos - August 31, 2020
  • Do the Work: Equity Symposium for Teachers - August 23, 2020
  • Universities Collaborate on the Biggest Experiment in Higher Ed: Reopening - August 3, 2020
  • The Day of Teacher Self-Care is Happening August 1, 2020 - July 21, 2020

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]

image courtesy of New York Times

In the United States it’s easier to buy a gun than to own a home. With a home purchase you have to go through months of inquiry into your financial, job and relationship history. Everything is verified multiple times and at any times if something does not ‘check out’ you are immediately denied the home loan. People plan for years to be ready to purchase their home.  However if you wake up one morning and want to buy a gun in the United States, you may have to wait a maximum of 7 days to purchase a piece of weapon that can kill another person. So what’s the problem? Should we ban weapons all together and only allow police and the army to have them? Of course not, however we must start having real discussions about gun control/education and stop hiding behind the belief that to discuss gun control means we are trying to take away people’s rights to ‘bear arms’. Never again do we want to turn on the news and learn that  innocent children and adults were killed by someone who should not have been given access to guns in the first place.

This discussion has to be about common sense and gun control that will  help protect our most precious commodity- our children who far too often get guns in their hands. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control gun violence claims over 30,000 lives annually; while each year approximately 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence. When the statistics are narrowed to our young people the numbers are even more sobering.  In 2007 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 3,042 children and teens died from gunfire in the United States in 2007—one every three hours, eight every day, 58 every week.

In simplistic terms, we have a problem. While many people argue that the solution lies within totally outlawing guns that is not the most common sense solution. Disarming law abiding citizens would make us targets for criminals.  So what do we need to do? Address these key issues in regards to gun control :

1. Mandatory education class for anyone who buys a gun in our country. In some states,you simply need  a driver’s license (meeting the minimum age requirement) and  money and you can go into your local gun shop and buy a firearm. While other states are more stringent, there is almost no real mandates that really makes sure people are given the proper education on how to handle/take care/protect your family with a gun.

According to David Kopel’s study on gun control in Japan the differences are startling. To get a gun in Japan you have to attend an all day class, pass a written test (which is only held once a month).  Then, you have to pass a rigorous background/mental health check for any criminal record. Lastly, you must provide police with documentation with the specific location of the gun in your home. (By the way, the gun and ammo must be stored in separate locations.) After all of that you can have the gun, but the police inspect the gun once a year and you have to retake the class and exam every three years!

2.Why do normal American citizens need military style assault  weapons? The tragedy in Connecticut was compounded by the fact  that the killer used his mother's semiautomatic and  assault weapons: a Bushmaster .223 caliber, Glock and Sig Sauer 9mm . These are all weapons that are meant to fire multiple bullets within seconds. Why do normal citizens need these type of weapons? Shouldn't these type of weapons be reserved for military and police?

3.Why is music that blatantly glorifies gun violence is readily played across the air waves of our country? We complain about violence in our society; however, we listen (and allow our kids to  buy) music that glorifies gun use and gang violence then we wonder why our teens are being killed due to gun violence. To make matters even worse, there are parents who have guns in their homes and they do not properly store them giving kids access to weapons that kill people.

In the end, a real discussion across political parties has to be had in this country about gun control. A conversation that is real, logical and most importantly figures out how to make our children safer.  Don’t make the conversations about the cold, calculated killers like Adam Lanza but make it about those 26 beautiful teachers and students who were killed in Newtown, CT.They deserve it.

 [/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailUse Your Holiday Break to Get Political Student Activists Lead the Way This is America...Unpacking the Layers of Violence Our Students See A School Boycott Isn't the Way To End Gun Violence
« Chris T.: Our Stellar Educator of the Week!
Voices of our Past: How Primary Documents Can Make Lessons Come Alive »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Delane Knight says

    December 19, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    Glad you spoke out on this! I'm still trying to figure out what type of law being proposed would have prevented this tragedy! Crazy people can't be legislated and unless there is someone on that campus who can shoot back, this is a hard crime to prevent!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships
  • Want to Keep Special Education Teachers? Try Mentorship
  • An Idaho teen who won his school board election has a message for educators
  • Moving Beyond Diversity to Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Lessons from a Sunday Sermon

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.