Florida Shootings: Rest in Peace Aaron Feis, Life is Sometimes Unfair to Good People.
We have all heard about the unfortunate incident which took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday. And from reports, it has it that 17 individuals lost their lives dew to the incident. I was disheartened when I heard the news, and at every single minute I have been tuning to CNN just to get full details on the sad incident.
First of all, I like to comment on the way things have really gone sour in our world today. The first thing that comes in my mind is about gun control! I was really shocked when I heard a 19 years Nicolas Cruz was holding a AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle for the mass shooting. I mean how a civilian, in a supposed sane country, manages to get his hands on a first grade assault rifle still baffles me, because I previously thought the gun law do not allows ownership of such weapons except for the government bodies.
Over the past decades, it is been reported that 13 deadliest mass shootings in the United States are all linked to a AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle which is normally used by these terrorists.
Below is a list of all mass shootings with a AR-15 rifle according to USA TODAY:
Feb. 24, 1984: Tyrone Mitchell, 28, used an AR-15, a Stoeger 12-gauge shotgun and a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun to kill two and wound 12 at 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles before killing himself.
Oct. 7, 2007: Tyler Peterson, 20, used an AR-15 to kill six and injure one at an apartment in Crandon, Wis., before killing himself.
June 20, 2012: James Eagan Holmes, 24, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber Smith and Wesson rifle with a 100-round magazine, a 12-gauge Remington shotgun and two .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic pistols to kill 12 and injure 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Dec. 14, 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, used an AR-15-style rifle, a .223-caliber Bushmaster, to kill 27 people — his mother, 20 students and six teachers — in Newtown, Conn., before killing himself.
June 7, 2013: John Zawahri, 23, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber rifle and a .44-caliber Remington revolver to kill five and injure three at a home in Santa Monica, Calif., before he was killed.
March 19, 2015: Justin Fowler, 24, used an AR-15 to kill one and injure two on a street in Little Water, N.M., before he was killed.
May 31, 2015: Jeffrey Scott Pitts, 36, used an AR-15 and .45-caliber handgun to kill two and injure two at a store in Conyers, Ga., before he was killed.
Oct. 31, 2015: Noah Jacob Harpham, 33, used an AR-15, a .357-caliber revolver and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to kill three on a street in Colorado Springs, Colo., before he was killed.
Dec. 2, 2015: Syed Rizwyan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, 28 and 27, used two AR-15-style, .223-caliber Remington rifles and two 9 mm handguns to kill 14 and injure 21 at his workplace in San Bernardino, Calif., before they were killed.
June 12, 2016: Omar Mateen, 29, used an AR-15 style rifle (a Sig Sauer MCX), and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol to kill 49 people and injure 50 at an Orlando nightclub before he was killed.
Oct. 1, 2017: Stephen Paddock, 64, used a stockpile of guns including an AR-15 to kill 58 people and injure hundreds at a music festival in Las Vegas before he killed himself.
Nov. 5, 2017: Devin Kelley, 26, used an AR-15 style Ruger rifle to kill 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, before he was killed.
Feb. 14, 2018: Police say Nikolas Cruz, 19, used an AR-15-style rifle to kill at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Who are we to blame for these recklessness?
In knowledge of these sadistic histories, it isn't a bad idea to think gun control would stop all these unnecessary waste of young lives. Another thing is that the guns manufacturers will always lobby to prevent gun control. In this regard I will put all the blames on guns manufacturers and government officials most especially lobbyists and their lawmakers.
I also think the school management were not vigilant enough and thereby failed to keep an eye on the road since they have been aware of the useless lifestyle of the shooter, countless of times Nicolas Cruz was engaged in notorious scenes which eventually led to the school authority expelling him.
What's more, there were series of scary pictures which the idiot Nicolas Cruz posted on his social media accounts. Are all these not enough to confront him of being a threat to the society, how on earth would someone like him be having series of weapons along side posting with them on social platform and people still assumed it's normal. Guns don't kill people rather people kill people. The shooter should have been placed under police watch after he was expelled, because 99.9% of the time, it is aggrieved people (like sacked workers or expelled students) that go on such mass shooting rampage: meanwhile, the assailant was always known for this kind of notorious lifestyle.
These 3 victims and their legacies
Here are 3 victims who died while trying to protect the students of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland :
- Scott Beigel:
Beigel is one not to forget as he died trying to protect the lives of the students, he was a geography lecturer, he was killed as he tried to guide students back into his classroom at the time the shooting started. One of his students told CNN that the teacher was gunned down at the outside of the door as he guided them into the classroom. The great teacher ensured the lives of his students were safe but was however unlucky to be gunned down.
- Chris Hixon:
Hixon 49 years of age, was an athletic director and was also the school's wrestling coach. He was a Naval reservist deployed to Iraq in 2007. He was known for his kind, caring and honest attitudes towards the students.
- Aaron Feis:
Here is the most heroic of all, Feis was first to have jumped forward trying to cover the students from any gun shots bullets. He offered himself as a selfless sacrifice to save some of the students, it's painful losing people like this in the society. These are the kind of people we need to make a better world. Feis was a football coach, he died protecting the students, he died doing what he loves doing, he died as a hero.
Conclusion
I think it's high time the government do something about the repeated issue of mass shooting in the U.S. There should be strong laws towards the use of arms, and there should also be laws guiding social platforms that when anyone is being seen flaunting dangerous weapons, then he or she should be investigated.
I pray such evil never repeat again, my special condolence to the bereaved families. I'm also using this medium to wish @adept an eternal rest, RIP bro, your legacy won't be forgotten, the steemit community won't ever forget you. Rest on bro, till we meet to part no more!
Image sources: 1,2,3,4
This was without a doubt a very tragic event that could potentially have been prevented. A little awareness goes a long way. It was not the guns that perpetrated these heinous events but heinous individuals. In most of those cases, there were blatant warning signs prior to the mass murders. Warning signs that were not acted upon and ignored.
It is too easy to lash out at a weapon for the act of an individual, but that is what we are seeing here. It has been proven countless times around the world, that stricter enforcement does not make us safer, it is, in fact, the opposite. The mere fact that faculty is not allowed to be armed on schools grounds actually makes our students less safe and not safer. Gun control laws that prohibit the protection of our children.
The Boston Marathon mass killing is an example of the kind of heinous murder that can be perpetrated without a firearm. If a mentally unstable person wants to do something horrible - they will find a way to do it.
This is a very very sad day. Too many lives taken from us too soon.
Thanks for your opinion, though I may slightly disagree with some of your points, but each one to his own opinion. Gun law would reduced the level at which everyone (both children and adult) are having easy access to these weapons. I know it is not the weapon but the individual who is committing the crime, however I still think the individual who commits the crime uses weapon, and without weapon it couldn't had been worst like we have just seen. Gun laws when enforced would limit the easy access to weapons. To me that is one of the ways to start preventing such issues like this in the future. I'm not saying it isn't possible for people to do bad without such weapon as AR-15 rifle, but we must understand that all this kind of weapons gives the killers an easy access to catch up with many souls at a short time.
I think a gun law like this is not a problem, you can have as example Switzerland where almost (if not all) houses have a gun and we don't see news like this, but for the current situation of USA where children and teenagers are exposed to a wide variety of societies, and this societies ideas may lead them to transform their way of thinking, not to mention bullying traumas. In conclusion it is true that this actual guns laws need to be revisited.
I'm happy we are of same point of view. Thanks for your contribution...
Good posting I've seen well.
I follow you.
I communicate frequently in the future ^^
https://steemit.com/@cchstory