WRITE OR WONG?:From Shirt to Gun Control

KAYIU WONG
Staff Writer

On Sept. 19, 16-year-old Haley Bullwinkle wore a National Rifle Association (NRA) t-shirt to her school, Canyon High, and was forced to remove it. School officials believed that the shirt depicted violence and dealt with it as a dress code violation. Outraged, her parents demanded an apology over the rash misinterpretation.

In retrospect, Bullwinkle had the right to wear the shirt. It was an unintentional offense and it was ignorant of the administration to assert it as a promotion of violence. The NRA works to lobby Congress in maintaining the right to bear firearms; they are not advocating extreme gun use, and most definitely not through a shirt.

Yes, that still does not make the NRA the most humanitarian organization, but then again guns are naturally not the most humanitarian topic. The fact that a simple shirt sparked up these gun violence issues really represents the ambivalence our nation has over gun legislation.

For over a century, lawmakers and gun lobbyists have been debating over gun regulations; unfortunately, it has taken occasional acts of gun violence to really bring this issue into light.

Proponents of stricter gun control laws maintain that they will prevent the needless loss of life, while adversaries argue that they restrict individuals from protecting themselves. Since both sides are so polarized, there has not been a compromise and, frankly, the government’s stance on this issue is too obscure. Without due action, issues regarding gun control still remain unclear, and this is why misconceptions begin.

Just as the school needed to reevaluate what violence meant in their dress code, both Congress and we citizens need to reevaluate the balance between maintaining ownership rights with common sense in terms of gun safety.