Marching in March

Some politician my age had the audacity to ridicule the students who are planning the March For Our Lives. Don’t these politicians remember that we the boomers organized protests and marches to address the issues of the 1960s and 1970s when we were mostly students in those decades? We were young and passionate about making or trying to make positive changes in American society. We blamed the ‘adults’ of the day for war and racism, among other things.

The March For Our Lives, today in Washington DC, is primarily organized by students who survived the mass shooting at a Florida high school last month. The main issue is sensible gun control laws. They say “the adults have failed us”. Congress has done nothing. Mass shooting after mass shooting. These student, many students, don’t feel safe in their schools.

I won’t debate that issue too much here because it won’t do any good. Nobody will ever convince me that the average citizen needs an AR15. Nobody can convince me that sensible restrictions on purchasing such weapons violate the 2nd Amendment; they don’t.

The point is to make it more difficult for “bad guys” and the mentally ill to purchase firearms. Laws won’t stop them but they could slow them down.

These students have credibility in making their views and concerns known. Seventeen students were killed. SEVENTEEN of their friends. Many of the survivors were next to those who were killed and could have been killed themselves. We owe it to them to hear about their fear and to do something about it.

Gun issue? Mental health issue? Should schools all have metal detectors? Should teachers be armed?

Those questions are all part of the debate. All are valid points. Nobody has all the answers. Everybody needs to consider other points of view. Our great country was built on finding common ground in debates over differing points of view.

I would love to see the complete elimination of guns in our country. It will never happen. I won’t bother to advocate for that. Guns are just part of our culture and citizens have the right to own them. But don’t tell me it can’t work. Australia did it. And it worked there. The common ground, in my opinion, is to have and enforce common sense restrictions.

Pay attention to the protesting students. Hear them out. They were there, we weren’t. They don’t have all the answers either, but today they have the balls to ask the questions and challenge us to find some answers. They are our future just as we were once someone’s future.

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