Logo
  • Home
  • Ask
  • Teen Help Network
  • About
    • About Judge Tom
    • Books
    • FAQs
    • Press Room
  • Your Rights
    • Crime and Punishment
    • Student Rights at School
    • You and Your Body
    • You and the Internet
    • Juvenile Justice System
    • LGBT Youth Rights
    • More Categories
  • Blog
  • Get Help
    • Videos
    • A Teenager’s Guide to Juvenile Court
    • Books
    • Research & Resources
  • Newsletter Signup

 

Q&A

Know your rights! Youth justice and juvenile law answers.

Askthejudge.info features regular updates from the news, important decisions from the nation′s courts, and online discussions with Judge Tom. Find out everything you need to know about youth rights, juvenile law and juvenile justice. AsktheJudge – Empowering youth one question at a time.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this site is made available to the general public and is not intended to serve as legal advice.You should consult a trained legal professional in your area for questions you may have about the laws affecting juveniles or any legal interpretations.

Copyright, 2014
Logo
December 14, 2015
Judge Tom
Blog, Featured
0

Warning: the following headline is fiction; the article is not

PreviousNext
Candlelight Vigil

Warning: the following headline is fiction — the article is not

Children of U.S. Senators and Representatives gunned down at a private school

Three years ago, on December 14, 2012, twenty children, ages six and seven, were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut along with six educators. The twenty year-old shooter was armed with an assault rifle and two pistols. The nation stood still and was grief stricken by the horrific event and the images of twenty innocent, young children. Sadly, the tragedy now lies in the shadows of the latest mass shootings as they occur with alarming frequency during the past few years.*

The majority of Americans favor reasonable gun control measures. Loopholes in state and federal laws must be closed by common sense regulations that don’t infringe on the Second Amendment. Proponents of gun control continue to push for a ban on semi-automatic weapons, a limit on large-capacity magazines, universal background checks with a reasonable waiting period, and regulations on sales at gun shows and online as well as restrictions on straw-man purchases. None of these measures violate the Second Amendment or abolish the right to individual gun ownership.

The tragedy at Sandy Hook was not an isolated incident. More than 32 thousand men, women and children die from gun violence every year in the United States. Places including Columbine, Virginia Tech, Charleston, Aurora, Tucson, Roseburg, Oregon and most recently, San Bernardino, California are all too familiar. In President Obama’s words, we have become “numb” from such violence.

You might ask, what has Congress done about this epidemic? After all, aren’t our Senators and Representatives elected to represent the voice of the people? In spite of a majority of the population in favor of gun control measures, Congress has done nothing but turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the problem since Sandy Hook three years ago. Can you imagine anything worse than the killing of twenty innocent children in their first-grade classroom?

What will it take for Congress to act? When politicians are more concerned about re-election and their personal well-being, it’s easy to ignore the public good. The stranglehold lobbyists have on politicians may only be broken when a senseless tragedy hits home. One of their colleagues was targeted at a shopping center in Tucson, Arizona in 2011. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords survived but did that attack prompt Congress to act? Of course not.

Do you think members of Congress would turn their backs on the demands of the NRA if their children were targeted by a deranged person with an assault rifle? Their history of inaction suggests not.

*There have been 355 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2015. A mass shooting is defined as an incident with four or more fatalities or injuries, including the shooter.  –Washington Post, December 2, 2015.

Photo by Sterling College

school safetyweapons
Share this
Judge Tom

The Author Judge Tom

Judge Tom is the founder and moderator of AsktheJudge.info. He is a retired juvenile judge and spent 23 years on the bench. He has written several books for lawyers and judges as well as teens and parents including 'Teen Cyberbullying Investigated' (Free Spirit Publishing) and 'Every Vote Matters: the Power of Your Voice, from Student Elections to the Supreme Court' (Free Spirit Publishing). In 2020, the American Bar Association published "Cyberbullying Law," the nation's first case-law book written for lawyers, judges and law students. When he's not answering teens' questions, Judge Tom volunteers with the American Red Cross and can be found hiking, traveling and reading.

Find great resources in our

Teen Help Network


Leave A Comment Cancel reply