Our Action Plan
First, we had to become experts on our topic. We utilized Noodletools to collaborate and combine our research, as well as keep track of our sources. Before we could start contacting our lawmakers and interest groups we had to make sure we knew what we were talking about!
The main activities of the plan(s) are to identify and contact government officials. These letters will be about: local-getting ID cards in Springfield Schools, state- implementing safety devices in schools in NJ, federal- raising the age to buy a gun to 21 in the USA. If we get responses back from these governmental officials, we can use them towards our advantage when protesting for more gun control and better school safety.
Groups that are for gun control are the New Jersey Education Association, Safe and Sound Schools, the National School Safety and Security Service, and the Security Industry Association. The New Jersey Education Association states, "It is time for politicians to stop cowering before the gun lobby. It is time to stop responding to every mass shooting with calls for more guns." Safe and Sound Schools states, "We have always – and only – focused on school safety. We are firm in our mission and firm in our resolve, and we will continue to provide research-based education, tools, and resources to ensure the safest possible learning environment for the youth of our nation." The National School Safety and Security Service states, "We focus on a balanced approach to prevention, intervention, security and crisis preparedness, combined with improving communications, school climate, psychological support services and strong relationships with public safety officials." The Security Industry Association state that they would fund school safety improvements, and that they would invest in prevention programs to stop school violence before it happens. To win their support, we can say that these school kids are our country’s future. They are going to be our doctors, judges, and they are even going to be our future Presidents. We can also bring up how they've supported these issues in the past. However, since these groups already support school safety and gun control, persuading these groups should not be a large issue.
Groups that are against gun control are the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, and the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. The NRA boasts more than 5 million members. They have argued with Emma Gonzalez, a student from Parkland Florida, about gun control. The Gun Owners of America boasts 1.5 million members. They often debate about handguns. The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association took part in a rally against laws limiting Second Amendment rights. The rally has many extremists’ statements, for example they said that the Newtown shootings were a hoax. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association has also filed a federal lawsuit. The head later spoke out against the comments. To win their support, we can show them how many victims there are, and affect them on an emotional level. For example, people placed shoes on the Capitol lawn for every victim of gun violence. This effected people more because it’s a visual of all the lives that have been lost. Also, we can make them feel guilty by stating that though their second amendment be violated, but we're just using our first amendment and fourteenth amendment (equal protection).
Interview With a 7th Grade Teacher:
As part of our project, I interviewed a seventh-grade teacher. From this interview, I gained valuable insight and perspective. It included that innocent people are being harmed and it(school safety and gun violence) can be better controlled or handled. My teacher believes others think it’s a problem because many people have children and only want to make sure that the safety of their children are their primary concern. Some concerns of hers are that people think that their rights might be taken away because the (ID) cards track the students. She thinks that most people are aware about this issue but they don’t know how to handle it. My teacher has the same perspective as my peers and I.
Poll Results
We also created a poll (to find people who share our opinions on this topic). Click here to access our poll. As of June 7th, 2018, 76.67% of the respondents want AR-15’s to be banned. 93.33% of respondents think there should be more gun regulations put in place. 83.33% of respondents do not support the NRA’s goal of no restrictions on the Second Amendment. 53.33% of respondents think most people in our country are aware of this issue. 83.33% of respondents think this issue is either extremely significant or significant. Only 6.67% of respondents said that the gun violence occurring in our country never made them fearful. 63.33% of respondents feel that the government is not addressing the issue of gun control enough. Only 20% of respondents feel that more gun regulations are violations of the Second Amendment. Only 6.67% of respondents said that the values of the Second Amendment are more important than stopping gun violence. Out of Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Phil Murphy, 56% of respondents think Phil Murphy is addressing this issue the most.
This photo was probably taken at a rally and then submitted to online sources. It shows a person, most likely male, holding a sign emblazoned with “More Guns = More Death”. This sign shows that he is very strongly for gun control. The woman sitting down near him is holding two American flags, which I think symbolize that she is American and believes that she deserves her right to protection. The fact that she is holding two flags and not protesting with a sign shows that she believes in symbolic speech. Once I read the sign, it immediately made me question how many mass shootings there’ve been this year. I went online to http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-mass-shootings-in-america-this-year-2018-2 and found out that there’s been already 102 mass shootings this year. That’s almost as many shootings as days there’s been this year (as of today, June 1, 2018, there have been 105 days of 2018).
We created a blog on Blogger.com to gather views and opinions on our issue and proposed policies. Visit out blog by clicking here.
We wrote and published a petition on change.org to help us gather support from people who share our beliefs. The more signatures we get the more it will persuade our lawmakers to support our policies. Please click here to sign our petition.
We created a Pinterest board to gather information and spread the word and to give people information about our mission. Click here to visit our Pinterest Board.
Final Step:
Sharing Our Website with Groups and Individuals
That Might Support and Oppose our Proposed Policies
A government official who might be willing to support our proposed policy is Florida Governor, Rick Scott because he has recently signed new gun control measures. He signed on a law raising the purchase age in Florida to 21 years old. Another official who'd stand for our gun control would be our very own governor, Phil Murphy. He says, "Unlike Chris Christie I won't pander to special interests like the NRA gun violence is a public health crisis, and we must pursue smart, sensible solutions." Yet another governor who's for gun control is Andrew Cuomo. He announced the passage of legislation to remove guns form domestic abusers. We can gain their support by explaining the problem of school safety in New Jersey. We can show examples from past shootings and the impact of the event on everyone around them. For example, after the Parkland shooting, millions of people around the world felt devastated. Even though this didn’t happen to anyone they know, they felt the pain that the community was feeling. When they see the impact on the families of the victims, they might feel even stronger for gun control and school safety and want to support our cause. We could also relate to how the issues of guns can affect the government as well.
Marco Rubio is the Floridian Republican senator. Marco Rubio said that assault weapon bans wouldn't work now since they didn't work in the past because there are too many guns out there. Rubio states, “You could pass a law that makes it hard to get this kind of gun in a new condition. But you are going to struggle to keep it out of the hands of someone who has decided that’s what they want to use because there are so many of them out there already that would be grandfathered in.” Oliver North is the president of the NRA. He has claimed that the gun control activists are "civil terrorists." Oliver states, "They're not activists – this is civil terrorism. This is the kind of thing that's never been seen against a civil rights organization in America." We can gain their support for our issue by explaining that there's been a shooting almost every week, and that what if your son/daughter/relative is next? Making them concerned about their own relatives would have a large impact on them caring about the cause and could maybe help them to change their mind. But for the people who don't really care about their relatives' safety, it would be harder to convince them. We can also start petitions, and get more government officials on our side. We can show them our website, petition, and poll to help them sway to our opinions. This could help prove to them that we need our policies to be implemented as soon as possible. We can also organize a rally to share our beliefs.
Florence M. Gaudineer Middle School
Springfield, New Jersey