In wake of Uvalde tragedy, Nashville students to march for common-sense gun laws | Opinion
On Saturday, June 11, students all across the United States will be organizing to protest the lack of common-sense gun laws in America. Following the Uvalde, Texas, shooting on May 24 at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 students and two teachers, March for Our Lives and Students Demand Action activists have started calling on politicians and demanding serious changes be made to our gun laws.
Nashville student activists have gotten together to host a march in coordination with the national event from March for Our Lives. Carson Ferrara, Shun Ahmed, Sebastian Arredondo and I — co-organizers of the Nashville event — have been working closely with Nashville officials to ensure the event runs smoothly. We want it to make a large impact by encouraging elected officials to have the necessary conversations surrounding gun violence and pass legislation for common-sense gun laws.
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An example of the type of legislation we’re looking for our legislators to pass can be seen in the 1994 Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act. Although it passed only with the inclusion of sunset provisions (meaning that it would automatically expire in 10 years if not renewed by Congress), mass shootings went down by 43% over the decade that it was in place. Since the ban on assault weapons expired in 2004, the number of mass shootings in the U.S has nearly tripled.
The leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S is now gun violence. As an organizer of the Nashville march, I want to emphasize that we are not here to try to take away your Second Amendment right to bear arms. Rather, we are gathering to promote common-sense gun laws that any reasonable gun owner would advocate for. Examples of changes that we are looking for in Tennessee include closing the background check loophole, requiring everyone who wants to own a gun to get a permit, raising the legal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, and requiring safe gun storage from all gun owners. These are not radical policies; in fact, they are policies that the majority of Americans support.
We encourage everyone interested in pursuing change to join us at 11 a.m. on June 11 in Public Square Park. For more information on the event, please head to our Facebook event page. Additionally, for anyone interested in participating but not in the Nashville area, head the March For Our Lives page to find upcoming marches.
Maddie Amberg is a rising senior at Vanderbilt University studying political science and public policy.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville students to march for common-sense gun laws
