Article 2 - CNN
Article 3 - New York Times
Summary:
At 8:55 AM a 12 year old girl opened fire at Salvador Castro Middle School. Two kids were shot, a 15 year old boy in the head who is currently stable but critical condition and a 15 girl was shot in the wrist and is in stable condition. 3 others, 11-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman, got minor injuries but were not shot. So far the police have the girl in custody but don't know about her motive for shooting the school or how she was able to get a weapon.
Opinion:
I think it’s horrible that news like this doesn't even shock me anymore seeing as of just a couple weeks ago we had already seen another student open fire at a school in Kentucky killing 2 people. The fact that a 12 year old girl can even get her hand on a gun is so disturbing. The only thing that is worse is that it seems that no one is doing anything about the gun control situation that has been growing exponentially.
Questions:
Why do you believe that shootings such as this one have become so common now and how could they be prevented?
How do you think the authorities will handle the situation seeing as the shooter was so young?
11 comments:
I think they should put stricter gun laws in place to see if this could fix the situation because obviously guns are so easily accessed that this 12 year old girl was able to get one. I think that this girl will probably be tried as a minor because sheś not even 16 yet. She´ll probably spend a few years at a juvenile facility.
As common as this is, it is annoying to have to repeat "stricter gun laws" on every blog post about an unecessary shooting. There is no real solution since the one solution we have is never put to the test. I hope this is not due to mental illness, but if it is I would not be completely surprised. Shootings are too common to just see them in the news and forget about the next day. People are losing family members, and friends everyday to something that is way too common in American society.
I agree that stricter gun laws should be put in place, since a 12 year old girl was clearly able to so easily access such a weapon, but similar events have been going on for a really long time but nothing has changed in the policies that could prevent such incidents. I think the increased number of shooting in recent years have had sort of a domino effect and are leading to more because such news, as Paola said, is not even shocking anymore. I think the shooter will still be severely punished, but it won't be as serious as a life sentence.
I will begin by saying that I support stricter gun laws. However, in this case, I disagree with those above who claim that stricter gun laws could have prevented the shooting. The whole premise of stricter gun laws is that we should conduct more stringent background checks and disallow the sale of firearms to those who are considered unstable or potentially reckless. However, even without stricter gun laws, it is clear that this girl did not legally purchase a gun for herself. Although the articles did not indicate how she obtained the gun, it is safe to say that it was not through a legal process. Thus, while enforcing stricter gun control laws would help to diminish the threat of gun violence from adult shooters, it would not have made a difference in this girl's access to a gun, because she is already legally forbidden to have a gun.
Also, she'll go to juvie for sure.
I honestly don't think you can prevent this from happening. These kids obviously have something wrong with them. They need physical, emotional, and psychological attention. You can never tell when they're going to act a certain way or make a dangerous move. Although you may be able to tell something is wrong with the child, you will never know when they will make a threatening move. I wonder how she was able to get this gun, and I do think we need stricter gun laws if things like this can happen. Especially because they do happen so often. She will most likely be in a juvenile trial since she is 12. They might try her as an adult but I doubt it especially if she has psychological issues.
As Daniel and Julia stated above, I also don't think that stricter gun laws would have prevented this incident. Although I do support stricter gun laws, the issue here is the culture around guns and killing as well as the child's mental issues and whatever it was in her life that made her do this. To prevent this in the future more attention should be given to children with mental health issues as well as changing how we look at guns in our society.
Gun control: in the US it is relatively easy to gain access to a firearm. Building the arsenal that many of these school shooters use in their crimes would be hardly possible in other countries with tougher gun regulation. However, in the US there are more than 15,000 gun shops and many families have one or several weapons. Children and teenagers have been trained on how to use a gun. Many experts claim that the easy access to guns in the US is one of the main factors explaining why mass shootings are becoming increasingly common.
I think that she'll be put in Juvie till she turns 18, then prison for a long time
It is so upsetting that shootings such as these keep happening, yet nothing seems to be done regarding gun control. While I understand people have the right to protect themselves, it seems that most instances with guns are to harm others, not protect. It's also upsetting that a 12 year old girl was able to obtain control of a weapon. There have been so many shootings that this doesn't even shock me. I think that there needs to be tighter restrictions on guns as these shootings keep happening and guns are used for the wrong reason.
I agree with Allie. I think it is awful that these shootings keep happening and nothing is being done about gun control. Although, in this situation I don't think stricter gun laws would have been able to stop this event because the girl was only 12 years old. Instead, I think this situation could have been avoided by paying closer attention to whatever was happening in the girl's life or if she suffered from mental illness. But aside from this shooting, there have already been over 10 school shootings this year, and our government needs to do something about gun control in order to stop these events.
It is hard to talk about something like this without bringing up gun laws in our country. I believe that is a much bigger debate that should be left to somewhere else, and not on a high school blog. What we could teach is action during and after a shooting for safety reasons. I think that they will assess the shooter's mental health because of the age of the perpetrator.
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