Gun Control Isn’t a Superhero- It won’t Stop Crime

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Shane Bassett, Ranger Review Editor

February 14, a day for the recognition of loved ones and others around you, was filled with terror especially for the students of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida which were put under attack by the spray of bullets released by Nikolas Cruz minutes before the dismissal bell. The shooting resulted in the death of seventeen people and fourteen more people that had to be hospitalized. This shooting is now being seen as one of the most deadliest mass shootings in the United States and has shoved the 1999 Columbine shooting off of the top ten list.

 

This tragedy has the community of Parkland, as well as citizens around the nation, asking, protesting, and pleading for gun control. They wish for a method that prevents someone from easily walking into a gun store and purchasing an automatic weapon that is capable of what happened on Valentine’s Day. Owners of an AR-15, the weapon used by Cruz, are disposing of them by destroying them or handing them over to the local authorities. These people do not wish to have the idea of having these automatic firearms in their homes.

 

The thing is, gun control won’t completely solve it. There are black markets where people already illegally sell and purchase firearms, drugs, and other substances. Also, the U.K. for example has seen mass attacks that don’t even have guns involved. A London subway train was attacked by a pressure cooker bomb that was filled with metal debris. Nail bombs, ballistic bombs, and even acid dispersing bombs have been used to attack masses of people. There have also been attacks with vans involved; these people simply have to obtain a vehicle, a common element of our society, without having to go into a black market or perform an alley deal to kill and injure a few dozen people. If the UK, with their currently banned gun policy is experiencing these types of attacks, then there is no doubt that even with gun control, we would see the same types of attacks.

 

If gun control can’t solve these types of attacks, then we need agencies to monitor suspicious individuals to prevent these attacks right? Well, the FBI was aware of the suspicious character of Nikolas Cruz since 2016. In September of 2017, they received a tip that a Youtube username called “nikolas cruz” had commented on footage of the Texas clock Tower Shooting that he “wanted to be a professional school shooter”. They again received a tip later in January, just about two months ago, that Cruz had made a death threat and could potentially shoot up a school. Even with the awareness of Nikolas Cruz, the FBI didn’t launch any investigations, never issued a warrant, and never searched his home.

 

Cruz was no stranger to some students that attended Stoneman Douglas High because he was joked around as “the one who would shoot up the school”. Before he was expelled, he would sit alone and talk to no one.  The times he would interact with students, he would like to show students images of the guns he owned and only talked about his guns and his desire to use them. He also followed White Supremacist groups on Instagram as well as various gun posting profiles on the social media site. This caused students to steer clear of him because they were afraid. If you are in school, a workplace, or any public environment and you are aware of a suspicious and potentially dangerous person, alert teachers, staff, and/or local authorities about the person.

 

Everytime a shooting occurs, radicals find it as an opportunity to demand for said gun control. What they don’t focus on are the people that were affected by the tragedy. People like 15 year old Anthony Borges,a kid who held a door shut during the shooting to protect his fellow students and in turn getting shot multiple times in the legs and back. He saved 20 lives that day and instead of people praying for his swift recovery and recognizing his bravery, angry mobs protest against our government demanding to ban automatic guns. As terrible as these events are, it is only used as an excuse to demand for a change that will barely resolve these attacks.