By Ryan Wood | United States

Sandy Hook, Orlando, and now Parkland; just some of the deadly shootings that have occurred in the past few years. Adam Lanza, Omar Mateen, Nikolas Cruz; just some of the people who have been responsible for these mass shootings that have been becoming increasingly common. When you really dig into it though, there’s one thing that all of these killers have in common; not one of them has been proven to be mentally stable. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old who was responsible for the Parkland School shooting that took place on February 14th, 2018, was anything but mentally stable. In fact, he was even expelled from the Parkland High School a year earlier. His Instagram account was even filled with posts of him holding weapons of all sorts in a very sick manner.

It can be seen that he had issues, and obviously, there was no one there to help him or walk him through any of this. Sadly, this is a problem in America, and after an event like Parkland, the magnitude of it seems to be pretty large. Now is the time to bring along a change in our country’s mental health system, and we must begin to really educate our children on the risks of it all.

Furthermore, one of the things we will begin to hear a lot about in the coming days is the whole “ban guns” song and dance. As everytime a shooting in America happens this is what politicians, more specifically Democrats and liberals, point at. They attempt to blame the gun for the problem, when in reality that was not what caused this shooting. Once again, what caused this shooting was a mentally unstable kid not getting the help he needed. Realistically guns would have actually helped stop this shooting before it escalated into 17 deaths. If there was an administrator inside that building with a firearm on him, there might have only been one death in Parkland; the shooter. This idea sounds far-fetched, but it truly is not. Keeping a gun of some sort locked away in a school, whether it be in a safe somewhere in the principal’s office or kept away in a designated teachers classroom is not a bad idea. Maybe even require a certain percentage of teachers to be trained in firearm safety. We must do anything to work towards keeping children safer as school should be a place we should be able to go and feel comfortable. Parents should not have to send their child to school and wonder whether or not they will return home safely.

However, these steps are not the only way to prevent school shootings in the future and are perhaps not even the most effective. As the only surefire way to stop shootings in general from happening is to start helping kids at a young age stay mentally aware and stable. We must make sure kids know the signs and risks of emotional disorders, and make sure they understand what steps to take when they show these signs. They need to understand that there are so many people and so many organizations out there dedicated to assisting them to find the help they need. This should all take place in required classes from the time a child is in fourth or fifth grade until they’re graduating high school. If we can effectively implement this, even the thought of killing someone could be stopped. With that said, we the people must tell our lawmakers that it is time for a change! It is time that we help people all around the nation feel safer and more secure.

In conclusion, it is time to start educating children in America about the effects of mental health and mental disorders. It is time that teachers become trained to stop an active shooter. Most importantly, it is time that Washington stops blaming guns, and starts making progress toward reforming the failing mental health system!