Persuasive Speech On School Shootings

A great man, and one of my personal heroes once said “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future” (“John F. Kennedy Quotations''). Today you can see many young people speaking out about important issues and helping our world progress. A great example of this is X Gonzalez, an American gun control activist; they are a survivor of one of the deadliest school shootings in American history: Stoneman Douglas HIghschool also known as the Parkland school shooting. X is only 23 but has already made so much change and touched so many lives. By speaking out about different issues, young adults are changing the policies that affect them. Most people agree that people who are being affected by certain issues should

A popular issue in society today is the topic of school shootings. They have become so much more relevant and common that some students, even some friends of mine, have admitted to being numb to them. It’s the same steps followed every time there is a school shooting: the shooting occurs, people get angry and protest for stricter gun control, there are vigils and moments of silence, people post information about the shooting and guns, and slowly people start to forget about it and move on. When was the last time most people heard about the Oxford school shooting or the CVPA shooting? For us it’s just another school but for them it’s their sister, their son, their best friend, their grandson. Children go to school everyday in fear of not returning home at the end of the day and people have the audacity to say that they’re not old enough to speak out about gun control. Children aren’t old enough to have to worry about dying during 2nd period. They are the ones directly being affected by it and they should be helping form policies to protect their peers and

Ben Shapiro is a conservative political commentator that wrote an article on Students’Anti-Gun Views, and he states “Children and teenagers are not fully rational actors. They’re not capable of exercising supreme responsibilities.” (Shapiro et al.) While Shapiro might have a point, it’s clear that students are only protesting and speaking out about gun control because the people in power that could be doing something are not. If politicians, the people we elected, the people that are supposed to serve us and protect our rights are not protecting the lives of students in this nation, then it is fair for young activists to speak out. It is inspiring to see students speaking out and voicing their concerns about the laws that are in place to protect them. According to the Library of Congress, “the average age of Members of the House at the beginning of of the 117th congress was 58.4 years; of Senators, 64.3 years.” (Carey). Gun related deaths increase by year and according to Every Stat, “The rate of gun deaths has increased 33% form 2011 to 2020 in the United States. This means that in 2020 there were 12,871 more gun deaths than in 2011.” (“How does gun violence impact the communities you care about?”). Politicians don’t understand how gun violence stays with a community for generations. There were so many fewer school shootings 58-64 years ago so they never