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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/24/guns-teenager-oakland-violence-weapons
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| I used to be a gun-toting teenager. If I stepped away from guns, we all can | I used to be a gun-toting teenager. If I stepped away from guns, we all can |
| (25 days later) | |
| In Oakland, where I live, young people wake up every day to another person killed by gun violence. It’s a never-ending nightmare. This gun violence is swept under the rug by people afraid of a world without guns. They forget what it was like before they had access to one. | In Oakland, where I live, young people wake up every day to another person killed by gun violence. It’s a never-ending nightmare. This gun violence is swept under the rug by people afraid of a world without guns. They forget what it was like before they had access to one. |
| If the answer to violence were more violence, things would be better by now. But they’re not. As a teenager, I watched people fall victim to firearms. Sometimes these gun deaths were self-inflicted. Other times they were caused by someone else. The common denominator was the ready access to these weapons of mass destruction they call guns. | If the answer to violence were more violence, things would be better by now. But they’re not. As a teenager, I watched people fall victim to firearms. Sometimes these gun deaths were self-inflicted. Other times they were caused by someone else. The common denominator was the ready access to these weapons of mass destruction they call guns. |
| This year we saw something happen in the world that hasn’t happened in a very long time: the youth fought back. They stood up and said: “Enough is enough.” Nobody has the desire to be another face on a T-shirt. Nobody has the desire to be another RIP. Nobody has the desire to leave behind family, memories, significant others, and their futures. | This year we saw something happen in the world that hasn’t happened in a very long time: the youth fought back. They stood up and said: “Enough is enough.” Nobody has the desire to be another face on a T-shirt. Nobody has the desire to be another RIP. Nobody has the desire to leave behind family, memories, significant others, and their futures. |
| I wasn’t always opposed to guns – I was raised to think that the only way I could protect myself was to have one | I wasn’t always opposed to guns – I was raised to think that the only way I could protect myself was to have one |
| Yet because of gun violence we have that fear going to school, work, airports, vacations, and being on the road. Gun violence isn’t only in schools, or street corners, or even the mall. It’s on the freeway when you change a lane, RIP Bianca Roberson. It’s in the neighborhood when you wear the wrong hoodie on the way home from the store, RIP Trayvon Martin. Its standing in your grandma’s backyard at night, RIP Stephon Clark. | Yet because of gun violence we have that fear going to school, work, airports, vacations, and being on the road. Gun violence isn’t only in schools, or street corners, or even the mall. It’s on the freeway when you change a lane, RIP Bianca Roberson. It’s in the neighborhood when you wear the wrong hoodie on the way home from the store, RIP Trayvon Martin. Its standing in your grandma’s backyard at night, RIP Stephon Clark. |
| You can be anywhere and at any time someone could walk in, unannounced, and take your life. Even the police. I wasn’t always opposed to guns. In fact, I was raised to think that the only way I could protect myself was to have one. | You can be anywhere and at any time someone could walk in, unannounced, and take your life. Even the police. I wasn’t always opposed to guns. In fact, I was raised to think that the only way I could protect myself was to have one. |
| I remember how easy it was in my neighborhood to obtain one. I remember holding the steel in my hand and tucking it in my pants. I remember how my attitude changed, how easy it was to just think about pulling it out and just shooting. Having a gun did something to me. | I remember how easy it was in my neighborhood to obtain one. I remember holding the steel in my hand and tucking it in my pants. I remember how my attitude changed, how easy it was to just think about pulling it out and just shooting. Having a gun did something to me. |
| March for Our Lives: hundreds of thousands demand end to gun violence – live | |
| Lucky for me there were programs at my school that took me from being a fear-induced, gun-toting, trigger-happy teenager to a passionate peer educator with a mission to help kids like me with a rough upbringing. I want to make sure they aren’t swallowed by society’s expectations of what to expect from someone from my neighborhood. | Lucky for me there were programs at my school that took me from being a fear-induced, gun-toting, trigger-happy teenager to a passionate peer educator with a mission to help kids like me with a rough upbringing. I want to make sure they aren’t swallowed by society’s expectations of what to expect from someone from my neighborhood. |
| I learned from that program that violence comes and goes in a full circle. The only way to end that circle is to step out of it and teach others the same. | I learned from that program that violence comes and goes in a full circle. The only way to end that circle is to step out of it and teach others the same. |
| Gun policy, like technology, needs to advance with the times. It needs revising every year to keep up with current life situations. As a country, a state, as human beings we need to realize that just because something is written doesn’t mean it won’t need changing. | Gun policy, like technology, needs to advance with the times. It needs revising every year to keep up with current life situations. As a country, a state, as human beings we need to realize that just because something is written doesn’t mean it won’t need changing. |
| The only way to fix anything is to first realize it’s broken, and then accept that and change it. That starts with the youth, the adults and the lawmakers. The ball is at your feet: what will you do to make this shot? | The only way to fix anything is to first realize it’s broken, and then accept that and change it. That starts with the youth, the adults and the lawmakers. The ball is at your feet: what will you do to make this shot? |
| Smooth Wickliff is an Oakland native and is an alumnus of Teens on Target | Smooth Wickliff is an Oakland native and is an alumnus of Teens on Target |
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