Gun violence: a speech and an email

Hello everyone, my name is [NAVN A] and I am the representative for PAX. I am here to discuss the topic of gun violence with you all. First off, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for coming out. It is wonderful to see that so many of you care about this serious issue. Gun violence is unfortunately a big problem in our society, and it cannot be solved without everyone’s participation. As a member of PAX, I can tell you all that we are willing to cooperate with anyone, to get results. We are not looking for political power, monetary benefits and we do not have any malicious intents. Our mission is simply to keep guns out of our lives, unless it is completely necessary. We understand that the NRA wants everybody to have guns because it makes them feel safe; however, we feel that it only makes us feel safer, because everybody else has guns. If very few people had guns, no one would be under constant fear of their surroundings, thus eliminating the need for guns.

I am sure we are all get incredibly sad and feel as if there is nothing we can do, every time we hear about school shootings, or any sort of shooting for that matter. Now imagine how you will feel when it is actually one of your loved ones who has their life taken away, whether that be because of a moment of rage, years of built up anger or even just a random act of violence. Imagine if something like that happened in front of your eyes. Something so preventable being such a prevalent threat concerns us immensely, which is why we have decided to do something about it. It is alarming to us that there are so many students in our schools, who are able to obtain guns with ease, so we launched SPEAK UP. The fact that most of the school shootings occur after the attacker has actually told other people about their plans, is what inspired us to launch this campaign. We do not want cases like Josh Stevens’ to occur ever again. Josh is a 16-year-old kid and a friend of Andy Williams, the boy shot up their school. Andy told Josh about his plans beforehand, but Josh thought Andy was just joking, or perhaps he felt that no one would take him seriously if he had told somebody, so he stayed quiet. Andy Williams ended up killing two students and hurting 13 more. Josh Steven will feel guilty for the deaths for the rest of his life. If one of you are ever in a situation like Josh was, please do not hesitate to call 1-886-SPEAK-UP, and let one of our assistants know.Now, some of you are probably wondering, ”What can I do if I am not particularly endangered, but still want to help?” Do not worry, there is always a way to help. For example, I am sure that most of you are part of some sort of social media, whether that be Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. We have established the hashtag #snitchessavelivesSPEAKUP to not only spread awareness about our campaign, but also to remind people that it is better to be seen as a “snitch” and save lives, rather that feeling the guilt of being able to prevent a shooting but not doing so. It is important to remind ourselves that saving lives is more important than honor. You are not doing anyone any favors by being a trustworthy friend of a school shooter.I want you all to spread the word, even if school shootings or even gun violence seems like it is very distant to you and your environment, because you will never know when or where the next tragedy is going to occur.