TRIGGER WARNING

Police brutality, murder, assault, racial violence, school shootings

Gun control is a controversial topic in America. Though I’m not sure why as the definition merely means the regulation of the selling, owning and use of guns.

America has 4.4% of the world’s population, but almost half of the civilian owned guns globally. This would be fine if gun control was in place. But regulations are severely lacking.

Despite the high volume of guns, America does not have an influx in crime in general, compared to other Western countries. They do however have an influx in lethal violence, largely due to guns.

“Let’s be clear, unleashing federal troops into our cities will not solve gun violence. The solutions — stronger federal gun laws, lifesaving funding for violence interruption programs — are sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk. We’re not falling for this desperate show of dominance.”

The statistics⠀

We could talk about American police shooting unarmed black people and how as a black person you’re almost 3x more likely to be killed (not arrested, murdered) by police than a white person.

We could talk about how 30% of black victims were unarmed compared to 19% of white victims. But we know the Blue Klux Klan is a racist institution upheld by white supremacy and shielded from justice by an equally corrupt legal system.

“American police kill about 1,000 people every year. Adjusted for population, that body count is five times higher than that in Sweden, 30 times higher than that in Germany, and 100 times higher than that in the United Kingdom.”

“You know what I’ll never forget? Those Black students at Parkland who, despite having just gone through a school shooting, said they did not want more police in their schools.”

School shootings

I’d like to talk about the other group of white people killing Black kids in America: students.
Black students make up 16.6% of the school population, but experience school shootings at 2x the rate. While the majority of shooters are white, the bulk of school shootings occur in schools where minorities are the majority.

55% of school shooters are white. While 17% are Black, 8% are Latino, 7% are Asian, 2% are Indigenous, 11% are either unknown, unclear, or another race.

In 160 active shooters incidents the shooter was male in 154 of them. The shooter was female in less than 4% of incidents.

“Florida school shooting survivor Emma González has shown more moral courage than the GOP and the NRA put together. RETWEET if stand with Emma as she demands gun reform from Congress and the President!”

The Next Step

This is a specifically WHITE MALE problem and they need to be held accountable to the full extent of the law. The median age of a school shooter is 16. These are not children, they’re people on the verge of adulthood who know right from wrong. They know what it means to end someone else’s life.

Likewise, police need to be held accountable as well. Defunding the police is part of the solution, but better training and recruiting methods are also needed. This should be paired with harsher repercussions for harming civilians, especially if it results in death.

I’d love to know…

If you’re a Black American, what do you think of all this?

To all Americans, what was your first school shooting drill like?

“I talked to a high school principal who was trying to figure out how to run active shooter drills while also protecting students from coronavirus. These are the kind of insane dilemmas confronting school leaders.”