By Steve Robinson | March 25, 2018 - 10:15 pm
Posted in Category: The Normalite

When compared to concern over gun violence in our schools, an early spring snowstorm couldn’t deter people wanting the violence to stop from turning out Saturday in Downtown Bloomington. “March For Our Lives,” the brainchild of students who were victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Valentine’s Day, took place nationwide Saturday, March 24.

Here, the march began with a rally and speeches by students from all of Bloomington-Normal’s high schools. Then, the group marched to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. There were teens, pre-teens, grade school kids with parents, grandparents, and others interested who stood outside in the snowy and wind-swirled conditions holding signs opposing the violence. Some 600 people total were present.

Normal Community High School student Faith Ringer was one of the students who addressed the gathering, saying, “I stand here today to make a change. I stand here with hope of saving others’ lives. I stand here with the hope of walking in school without fear. I stand here to represent the future of my generation.” Many of the speeches in front of and which followed hers in the nearly 90 minutes before the students and crowd marched were in the same vein and struck a tone with the crowd and were met by applause and cheers.

In the crowd, you found young people with signs in support of what they desired. Among those in the crowd were a group of girls mixed together from Normal Community High School and Normal Community West High School. Sisters Kennedy and Piper Coe, students at NCHS, Normal West student Lena Flitz, and NCHS student Kate Suter were holding signs such as “No More Silence – End Gun Violence.” Kennedy Coe, a freshman, said her reason for attending included, “We need more gun reform and to make sure students feel safe when they go to school.”

“Standing for what you believe in is really important and I don’t want to be scared anymore to go to school,” Piper Coe said. “There have been too many lives lost and there needs to be a change.”

I asked Flitz about President Donald Trump’s recommendation that there be teachers who could be qualified to carry and use guns if that would help the situation. She said there was always the possibility the gun could be taken from the teacher which would cause more problems. She labeled the suggestion “ludicrous.”

There are some people who think it isn’t the guns causing the problem, but that it’s more of a mental health issue, Flitz said, adding she doesn’t agree with that notion.

But across the street from the former Courthouse stairs where the rally was going on, there were a handful of 2nd Amendment supporters, one who periodically walked through the crowd holding up high his copy of the document, but the small band in opposition to what they were seeing stayed across the street and observed for the most part. Calvin Snelling and a group of about a dozen 2nd Amendment supporters observed the rally from across the street.

Snelling described himself and the others around him as “his fellow 2nd Amendment supporters.” He said the student protesters and those supporting them “don’t understand the Constitution and 2nd Amendment. They want to take away our rights.

“They don’t understand the gun violence is not the National Rifle Association, and it’s not the fault of legal gun owners,” Snelling said. He tacks the blame for school shootings on kids on drugs and kids already facing mental issues who get their hands on weapons but get them illegally.

He said he needs a FOID Card to be able to have a weapon, which requires a background check, and that process takes roughly 90 days to complete. Snelling said the shooter in the incident in Parkland had “been flagged by the school and police” in advance of the shooting and that nothing had been done.

Florida authorities “didn’t do nothing and the Parkland shooter should have had his guns taken away,” Snelling said. He added none of the shooters in the instances of school violence experienced in this country over the years are NRA members. ”NRA promotes gun safety and gun education,” he said.

A month to the day after the Parkland shooting, March 14, there was a national walkout by students, including those in Unit 5 high schools. Another such walkout is planned for Friday, April 20 – the 19th anniversary of the school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where 13 people — 12 students and one teacher – were shot dead by two fellow students.

There isn’t an easy answer here, folks. To each side of this debate, there is a solution. But the truth is, the solution which satisfies both sides hasn’t been found. Both sides are to be commended for standing their ground publicly. And I’m willing to bet that, for some of us, a refresher on the 2nd Amendment is in order to better understand the matter. That would help all of us.

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