By Amarillo Globe-News
Amarillo was part of the #marchforourlives event Saturday, a nationally organized demonstration/protest (depending on perspective) in support of increased gun control measures following a mass shooting at a high school in Florida.
Here is what Nell Newton, a minister at Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship who participated in Amarillo’s march, had to say regarding the event, “I wanted to support our youth because our youth are really seeing that things are not safe. Our youth are wondering what happened? Why did the adults not work to keep them safe?” (Amarillo takes part in the national conversation, March 24, amarillo.com.)
It is a valid question — why did the adults not work the keep kids safe?
This is a question that has many answers — if the question is looked at logically and not from a one-sided perspective.
For example, more gun laws and regulations will not change the fact that school administrators and officials failed to adequately address or respond to the myriad of problems and issues displayed by the shooter, at least in the case of the aforementioned Florida school shooting.
Syndicated columnist Ann Coulter has detailed mistakes made by school administration, most recently in a column in Amarillo Globe-News. (Coulter: Make Dems run on ‘school to prison pipeline’, March 19, amarillo.com.) We doubt many of the young people who participated in a #marchforourlives event (especially in Amarillo) are aware of this failure by the school, especially since many in national media have ignored these facts because they do not fit the gun control agenda.
And the constant blame of the National Rifle Association is tiresome and illogical.
According to www.opensecrets.org, the NRA ranked 154th out of 3,798 entities in 2016 in terms of money spent on lobbying, and No. 490 of 18,910 in contributions.
Follow the money — the political influence of the NRA is overrated, which is supported by the numbers, if one bothers to look.
Are some politicians fervently in favor of the Second Amendment? Yes, but this fact has more to do with politicians doing what is necessary to reflect what the voters back home want and support rather than a special interest group which ranked 490th in terms of contributions in 2016.
Young people need to understand that the gun used to commit death and carnage is often the final step in a descent into crime, evil and insanity — a fall that far too often can and should be noticed before a person legally or illegally obtains a gun.
