Thoughts on guns

      I grew up in this little bubble two hours north of Los Angeles. I believed that nothing bad would ever happen in my town, I thought my family was perfect, and I felt safe. I was quite naive. As I grew older I learned that my family was not perfect, bad things do happen in town and my hometown isn't the safest of places. These are all things that some people figure out quite young, some people figure out around the same I did and some who figure it out even later.
      About twenty-four hours ago there was a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas. Ten people died. This is the third school shooting in eight days. The shooting was done by a seventeen year old who got a hold of his fathers gun. It is far too easy for kids to get a hold of guns in the U.S. Just a little over a week ago there was a school shooting in my hometown a FOURTEEN year old got a hold of a gun and shot someone in the hand, luckily beyond that there were no other casualties.
     Guns are a big part of American culture, there is no denying that, but I believe that that culture is sacrificing the safety of the American people. There is an unacceptable amount of deaths caused by guns  in the  U.S. compared to the rest of the world. There is also the largest amount of private gun owners in the U.S than in the entire world. 48% of all guns in the entire world are owned by Americans. 89 out of every 100 Americans own guns. 96 people in the U.S are killed by a gun each day. There is 300 million guns available in the U.S today.  I think there is a direct correlation to the number of mass shootings and the number of guns in the U.S.
     There have been twenty-two school shootings in the U.S already in 2018. The one that happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine's day is the largest school shooting in American history. Seventeen staff and students died, that is seventeen innocent people too many. Nobody should go to school and be afraid.
     I realize that it is within the rights of U.S citizens to own guns but they are too easily accessible. I realize that most people who own guns and advocate for owning guns have no intention of using guns for anything other than what they intended it for, but most school shootings in America happen by a misguided, angry or mentally ill youth who has gotten a hold of a gun. This is not supposed to be accusatory, it is correct to say that people kill people, but I think guns make it too easy for people to kill people. I don't think that going to school should make anyone feel unsafe and I dont think that it should affect the freedoms of youth. I believe that the laws should be stricter. The amount of casualties and deaths by guns in the U.S is extraordinarily and unacceptably high. This needs to change. The brave teenagers of the Parkland shooting have been widely criticized for standing up and voicing  their concerns on American gun laws. After all they're only teenagers what can they know? The Bible tells us that youth often times have great wisdom Paul even tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity."  These brave teens may not be Christian, or if they were they may not have been thinking about this verse but, the fact that God talks of the wisdom of young leaders and often speaks through the youth means that if they are speaking wisdom we should listen, not dismiss their thoughts and ideas. 
     I see a few quite seemingly obvious laws that could be useful. It might be more complicated than I think to enforce these laws. I think raising the gun ownership from age eighteen to twenty-one would help quite a bit. Requiring people to put their guns in a gun locker when not in use is also a good idea. I think that a big problem with these school shootings is that the kids that do these terrible things are often mentally ill, so I think more awareness around depression, social anxiety and other mental illnesses would be great. More funding for more school counselors and psychologists so that each child can get free counseling, because right now it is so hard to get help from psychologists if you can't afford it.  Dear America, here's how other countries stop mass shootings .  
     Underneath this post I have included the link to quite a few Ted Talks and Youtube videos about gun control.

This is Miriam,
signing off


James Cordon on Gun Control in America

Generations React to Gun Control in America

Let's treat violence like a contagious disease

Why gun violence can't be our new normal

A parkland teachers homework for us all

My son was a Columbine Shooter. This is my story.

The Adventure of Being a Part of the World

     My inspiration for this blog post come from, believe it or not, Netflix. A lot of my posts are inspired by things I watch, I realize (and by a lot I mean two).

There is this great show called "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction." It is hosted by David Letterman and so far it only has two episodes, but both episodes are great. The two guests have been the former president of the United States (who needs no introduction), but I will tell you anyway, Barack Obama and the most recent episode was with George Clooney. Both guests are known worldwide and have a shared interest in the lives and well being of humans.

     George Clooney, I didn't realize, is very engaged in helping refugees as much as he can, even before he met his wife Amal Clooney who is a lawyer specializing in international law and human rights. As a lawyer she has taken some very powerful organizations to court, such as, Isis. Interview with George and Amal Clooney.

     Okay, enough praise of the seemingly wonderful and caring people that are George and Amal Clooney.  This series just reminded me of something that I have been thinking about. As someone who is half Norwegian, and half USAian (as someone once told me I was). I was sort of wondering about the awareness that other USAians have of the world around them, because I get the impression that I am more aware of the fact that there is other countries that have other problems out there than the average young american adult. My Mom said to me one day that it might be because I grew up with half of my family on the other side of the world, so I knew that there were other places out there from a very young age. It is something I have noticed with not all but a lot of Young Americans that have one or more foreign parents. They always seem to understand and be aware that there are other countries that exist other than The United States. I know people are aware that other countries exist but we often act like The U.S is the only one that matters.  

     Enough rambling, let me get to the point of this post, I often feel as if Americans are often very absorbed in the politics and problems of the U.S. and often don't consider the fact that as a part of the USA, we are part of the world and there are a lot of problems in the world that may be bigger than some of ours. Now I am not saying that the U.S. does not have big problems, I am just saying that we should try and widen our scope a little bit. We as humans are part of the world and should have a little bit of empathy and consideration for the other humans out there. 

     Last time I checked people are not fleeing the U.S. because they fear for their lives (applying to live in Canada because Donald Trump became president doesn't count). Forced displacement is at an all

time high according to The UN Refugee Agency. The UNHCR Forced Displacement is at an All Time High. 65.6 million people fled their homes because of conflict and persecution in 2016. I think if more Americans considered this fact, the world would be a much better place. One of the things that David Letterman and George Clooney talk about is the fact that George Clooney can help refugees because he can afford to. If more people who could afford to help people in more than shitty situations, (I could not think of adjectives that fit the situation better than curse words so I apologize), we would have fewer people in refugee camps and happier people. I believe that people will be happier, because helping people makes the people helping people happy,(say that five times fast). It also makes the helpees, happy, because they have now come out of their more than shitty situation. 

   Now, it is expensive to help people in this way but if you look at the Canadian refugee policy, it is often that a group of families, communities and churches sponsor a family, with some help from the government of course. These sponsors do things like welcoming refugees at the airport, help find them a place to live and a place to work. This is not at all a bad solution and divides the cost. It also helps the refugee/refugees feel less isolated, I would imagine, I have no factual evidence of this. Canada's refugee policy. I believe that more than enough churches, and communities in the U.S have the ability and resources to sponsor a refugee/family of refugees a year. 

     I am not accusing Americans of not caring enough, I feel as though we (I  am including myself) are often selfish with our time, money and research, and don't often consider that as bad as we may or may not have it now, as Americans there is always someone out there who has it worse and could benefit from your help. You don't have to do much to help someone, there are non-profits where you can sponsor a child's education who would not normally receive an education because of where they live, for just ten bucks a month.  That is one not expensive step to helping other people have a better life. Compassion International is a great example of a non profit. Compassion International
     I realize that as a college aged girl there is probably a lot I have not considered. But I think that it is important to show that we care about our fellow humans. In an ideal world everyone would be happy and taken care of, but everyone is not, that is why we have Jesus. I leave you with this verse, 1 John 3:17 says "Whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" Love God and Love Others.

If you interested in learning more about refugees there are a number of Ted Talks addressing this topic. I could link a lot but here are three.
Two Nameless Bodies Washed up on the Beach
Our Refugee System is Failing
A Boat Carrying 500 Refugees Sunk


This is Miriam, Signing off