By Mason Mohon | @mohonofficial

A wave of activism has taken hold of the high school students of this country. Youth political activity is now in, but it is merely another iteration of teens attempting to make an emotionally-charged change in a way that is good for PR, but bad for the world.

The student-led walkout on Wednesday consisted of high school students exiting the school and standing outside for 17 minutes. The intention was to raise awareness for gun violence, and although they will rarely admit it, it has the political intention of moving towards gun control.

If you don’t see it this way, come on. The celebrated results have been increased gun restrictions in multiple states, and the movement is the clear precursor to the March 24 “March For Our Lives,” a march with a clear gun control agenda. Stop beating around the bush, if you are walking out, chances are you want gun control. This is no innocent apolitical movement.

The obvious intention is to raise awareness of gun violence so that we may solve what we are now aware of. The mainstream method to do such a thing is to implement gun control on any level and of any kind. This is not going to work, though, for multiple reasons.

The most popular gun control example, Australia, has time and time again been revealed to be a faulty model for gun control. The statistics show the country was experiencing a downward trend before and after the buyback. Japan as an example has its flaws because Japan’s lack of gun violence stems primarily from its collectivist culture. The U.S. has a culture of gun ownership, meaning there would be substantial pushback to restrictions on any similar level within the country.

The resulting pushback shows the clear counter-productivity of trying to reduce violence through gun control. Who is controlling? The violent hands of the state would be the ones grabbing the weaponry. An institution of violence working to take the weapons from a gun-loving populace is in for a fight. The only result would be more violence.

Walking out to restrict gun rights should not be our goal. Rather, we should be what many are calling walking up. Like many of the ailments in modern society, deranged psychopathy that causes such tragedies as those of Parkland and Columbine stems from social isolation and lack of a father figure. The only thing that can fix this downward spiral is more human connection, and those responsible for this increase in connection are those that read this piece, along with everyone else.

Become the friend of the one who sits alone. Become the father-figure for the one who is growing up fatherless.

It requires personal work and sacrifice to make a change like the one we all want to see, and walking outside of your school for 17 minutes is flat out lazy. Broken boys and girls sit next to you in class every single day. Put in some work and make a real difference.

Featured image source.