4 minute read
OPINIONS THE REAL ISSUE IN MISSOURI
Grams
by Olivia Van Horn ovanhorn332@g.fhsdschools.org
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Almost everyone’s grandparents have a couple cool stories from their lives but my grandparents don’t just have a simple story.
My grandma and her second husband owned a huge house down in Des Peres, I remember going there all the time on weekends and breaks from school. We would get donuts in the morning with my grandpa and cousins as well as watch not-sokid-friendly shows like South Park with him.
To learn more about my grandmas husbands, scan this QR code to read the full article.
And my grandma and cousin Riley would have tea party’s in her sun room looking out to the country club golf course that we used to sneak onto and play around.
My grandma Connie, also known as Grams, is the most rib-tickling person I know. She was a Rockette in New York for two years in her twenties right before she had my aunt and father. When she auditioned to be a Rockette, it was on a whim, quite literally, she showed up with her ballet shoes and nothing prepared. The judges and coaches of the team gave her 20 minutes to figure out a routine and music, and she did it. For having nothing prepared, she still achieved her dream of becoming a Rockette after being an English teacher for a year. She always wanted me and my cousin Riley to be competitive dancers like she was; to no avail on her part. Now for an even cooler piece of information about her, being a Rockette is hard to beat but she married not one but two NFL Offensive Linemen who both played for the Giants… and they were best friends.
Missouri Legislature needs to take action against gun violence change the legal age to purchase a firearm and mandating thorough background checks in order to obtain permission to own a gun would be a start to solving the problem.
by Editorial Staff yourfhn@fhntoday.com
Since the 1999 Columbine shooting, 311,000 children have been exposed to gun violence while at school. That is over twice the entire population of St. Peters and St. Charles combined. 311,000 is almost 200 times as many students at FHN. Students are in danger and Missouri legislation is doing nothing to further prevent this.
School shootings have become a pressing issue over the past decade. Changes are being implemented in schools all over the nation. Procedures like metal detectors being set up, administrators guarding doors and students being inspected when they enter school. These have become the norm across the nation. Meanwhile, our legislature has been ignoring us and has been passing bills that affect few. Our priority as a state needs to focus on the children.
The children that fear going to school.
The children who bring their phones to the bathroom with them just in case they have to send the feared “I love you” text.
The children who are victims of our state’s neglect.
Our country is one of three in the world that has the right to bear arms in our Constitution so it’s safe to say that the right to own guns is a prominent part of our country’s culture. It is not realistic to completely ban gun ownership, or to enforce strict gun control. However, putting laws in place that
BY THE NUMBERS
To learn about gun violence in Missouri, read these statistics.
In the state of Missouri, 18-year-olds are not able to rent a car, drink alcohol or use of tobacco or cannabis products. It is unacceptable that by state law, 18-year-olds can purchase a gun but are not able to rent a car. The Missouri legislature continues to ignore mass school shootings, and focuses all efforts into upholding laws that further the unpermitted access to guns. This is irresponsible. Making it more difficult to obtain firearms in simple ways like a thorough background check, mandating permits and waiting periods can lessen the chances of school shootings for cases where people are buying guns and bringing them into schools. Many of the people who perpetrate school shootings are facing mental health issues that have gone undiagnosed or unnoticed in the past. In cases like this the perpetrator is likely not aware of the magnitude of the actions they are committing. By enacting waiting periods, there could be time for the perpetrator to be helped by someone. And by enacting thorough background checks, gun merchants will be able to limit the amount of people buying guns that are at risk of a mental health crisis.
It can be tricky to place exactly where students get guns from as it is illegal to purchase a gun until 18. It is pushed off as just irresponsible parents keeping guns in reachable places. While this can be true in some cases, it is actually legal for people under the age of 18 to possess firearms as long as they are purchased by an adult. This makes it legal for students in high school
42% of students know where and how to report a threat
4.6 Million children live in homes with a fire-arm that is loaded and locked
(Source: Navigate360.com and SandyHookPromise.com ) to possess firearms, not to mention many seniors in high school are 18 and can legally purchase and possess a firearm.
However, the way most school shooters obtain guns is due to parents irresponsibly, putting loaded firearms in unlocked areas. This cannot be completely controlled by any means, but 23 states have passed Secure Storage Laws, Missouri not being one of them. These laws require parents to lock up firearms. A less extreme version of this law is the Child-AccessPrevention Law which penalizes parents if a child gains access to a firearm. Both of these laws are easy to enact and dramatically lessen minors’ access to guns. In studies, it has been proven that seven out of ten children that had gained access
