Fostering Thought: Kids shouldn’t have easy access to guns
It never seems to fail that when school starts, guns seem to always find a way into the classroom.
Thursday, a middle school student in Jefferson County, which is located in upper East Tennessee, brought a gun to school. While showing the gun to a friend in the bathroom, the gun went off and shot the friend in the leg. The local sheriff later reported there were two guns found.
In March of this year, a high school student in Stewart County shot and killed his bus driver. Eight days prior to the incident in Stewart County, a 14-year-old boy tried to commit suicide after getting in trouble on the bus for allegedly exposing himself. He spent two weeks in Vanderbilt Hospital.
The sad thing about this whole matter is that after police reviewed the tape from the bus, he hadn’t even done what he had been accused of doing.
These are all regional incidents that have happened in 2005.
An even scarier fact is that the Associated Press reported that almost 8 of 10 school-based officers took a weapon away from a student on school property during 2003. This survey was taken from 750 officers and conducted by the National Association of School Resource Officers.
Whether the gun is brought to school by a child to impress a friend or to scare or kill someone, the cold hard truth is that too many children have convenient access to these guns.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not against the right that every man and woman has to bear arms. I grew up in a family with a father that had enough guns to arm the U.S. Army. My brothers were allowed to shoot guns, target practice and even go hunting at a very young age.
I believe every individual has a right to protect themselves but only if they take proper care in protecting others. There is no reason or excuse why a child should have everyday access to a gun.
Even in my case, the guns were always in a gun safe or properly secured with gun locks. My brothers were also made to attend gun safety classes when they were young. They were also never allowed to have the guns out while alone.
If a select number of parents will become responsible that will help the school-related gun violence go down tremendously. For those parents who have to work at night and are forced to leave their children at home alone, or the ones who don’t get home until later in the evening, don’t leave guns out for them to get and hide away.
The school-age students should also be taught that it is OK to tell an authority figure if they see another kid with a gun while at school or even out in the neighborhood. While growing up, kids are often laughed and made fun of for be a “tattletale.” In the long run, the kid isn’t going to be known as the tattletale but the kid that may have saved many, many lives.
Some measures have already been taken in Nashville to help the students when it comes to reporting guns. The Metro police have a hotline available for Nashville schools. It is 232-AGUN. They advertise this number quite often to students through the media, public speakers and many other creative outlets.
This excellent example of community policing is wonderful and I think other cities should follow that lead and look into this as an option.
Many communities do not deal with the problem of firearms in the schools until it is too late. Just remember parents, grandparents or anyone who may have a child in the house, it is not gun control that will solve this problem but gun education.
Amy Foster is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].