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In the wake of the Parkland massacre at Stoneman Douglas high school last week, many of us are left wondering—yet again—what can we do?
Some of us have been urging the need for gun control, and use the examples of what has happened in Australia and Great Britain as reasons to at least give it a try:
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Video credit: YouTube/The Daily Show
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Others insist that a law will not change anything—nor will marches—and instead recommend putting metal detectors in schools and arming our teachers. Because surely, that could never backfire. Pun intended.
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Video credit: Facebook/Colion Noir
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And while we’ve all been guilty of arguing, it comes down to this:
We are failing our children.
Even worse—they have noticed.
So now they are taking it upon themselves to effect change, and save their own damn lives. In the week since the shooting, many marches and protests have always started happening. Many more are being planned.
And the debate continues among adults, who don’t want to teach their children that they can simply walk out of school. Or other parents who do not support teachers walking out—even though they are the ones putting their lives on the line every day for our children.
Meanwhile, there is an assault rifle owner who decided to make his own choice about the matter.
Scott Pappalardo is a firm believer in the 2nd amendment, and has legally owned his assault rifle for over 30 years. He says that he is not a hunter, and when asked why he owns a gun of this type, he readily admits that it’s simply fun to shoot.
But sometime between the Sandy Hook massacre and the Parkland massacre last week, something has changed for him. And he decided to make sure that his weapon would never be able to take a life.
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Scott says right up front in the video that this was a very personal choice for him, and he knows it might not be the same choice that others would make.
But he has set the bar for all of us.
The step that he took was probably not easy for him. But he obviously went outside his comfort zone to take action.
So, what one action can we each take as individuals to do our own part in solving a problem of such tragic magnitude?
I know I will be thinking about that question long and hard.
Because Scott did what he could to show our children that we are not failing them, and we are willing to do the hard things.
Now it’s our turn.
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Photo credit: Facebook/Scott Pappalardo