Irene Namer: Students united with Parkland

Posted Friday, March 23, 2018 3:18 pm

SHEFFIELD — Have you ever wondered what it would be like walking through the hallway of your school on your way back from a bathroom break when out of nowhere a gunman fires a AR-15 machine gun at you? Could you ever be prepared when your school, your home away from home, is under siege by some crazy gunman who just seeks the thrill of randomly killing people in your classroom and school?

After the Parkland, Fla. school shootings, the facts began to hit home. Although I live in Massachusetts now, I was born and raised in South Florida within Broward County and I personally knew one of the students who was fortunate enough to survive the shooting.

Many lives shattered

When a gunman takes a life, he not only shatters that person's life with a bullet he shatters the lives of family and friends, and epitomizes bringing out the worst of human nature. Feb. 14, which was supposed to be a wonderful Valentine's Day at school, turned into a day of terror, bloodshed and tears. Seventeen lives were taken for no good reason, and families and the community mourned.

One of my good friends, Hannah Carbocchi, survived the Parkland shooting, thankfully. I have known her from Sawgrass Elementary because her older sister Kaitlyn attended the same school as me and we would see each other in classes.

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After this horrific incident, students banned together in an outcry calling for action to be taken immediately.. Students of Parkland paraded to the Florida state capital in Tallahassee and called upon their congressmen for support in banning AR-15s, bump stocks, gun magazines, and other assorted assault-style weaponry. President Trump was even called upon to take action in this matter.

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A town hall meeting quickly ensued at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, which brought public figures such as Sen. Marco Rubio, a spokeswoman for the NRA, Dana Loesch, and citizens from all over South Florida.When a student asked Rubio if he was with us or against us he couldn't make the promise not to support the NRA. When Loesch of the NRA was asked if she supported banning AR-15 assault rifles and upping the age to purchase a handgun, she too was not receptive to the idea. Her argument was she would rather support the Second Amendment "right to bear arms" and insisted that this incident was not caused by guns but was the result of a flawed legal reporting system.

In my opinion, these politicians displayed ignorance, and naivety about the major issue of the day. I believe, as did most of the town hall attendees, that AR-15 assault weapons, accessories, and bump stocks should absolutely be banned. Like them, I wonder what business does a child of 18 years of age have possessing a gun of mass destruction. These AR-15s are killing machines, and they have no place in the hands of any U.S. citizen unless engaged in war and should certainly not be available for citizens to purchase or possess. This is not a gun that can kill one person at a time.

I do not believe that when our founding fathers wrote the Second Amendment to the Constitution that these weapons were anything they had in mind. In the 1700s they were emphasizing the right to the protection and safeguarding of the liberties of residents with a militia dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as number one priorities. In the 1700s residents never heard of such a thing as mass school shootings.

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Falcon and Eagle strong

At least one good thing has come from all this tragedy — the students of Parkland are bonding together in a movement called "Never Again." I stand proudly as a former Floridian and currently as a Massachusetts Falcon of Berkshire Community College. As a Falcon, my student responsibility should be to safeguard my school from anything remotely similar to that incident. Parkland students are Eagle strong and I am Falcon strong! I call upon every student, every fellow Falcon and faculty member of Berkshire Community College, to stand tall and band together for our fellow Parkland Eagles.

Even though we have faced another horrendous tragedy, we have an obligation as a nation to come together in a call for action and change. I firmly believe that is what our founding fathers would have wanted us to do. They would not have wanted us to stand by and do nothing. We must stand up for what we believe in order to evoke a change that would allow us to feel safe at home and in our schools again. I would like to see all our Falcons unite together with the students of Parkland and make this change happen.

Irene Namer is a 19-year-old freshman at Berkshire Community College and a Sheffield native.