I am a survivor of a ‘ghost gun’ attack. Biden knows that thoughts and prayers are not enough.

I never thought I would have the opportunity on Monday to introduce President Joe Biden as he announced life-saving actions on gun safety. But I also never thought that two and a half years ago I would be put on a plane from school for emergency surgery to remove a bullet a millimeter away that had killed me. Or that after that day, I would never see my best friend, Dominic Blackwell again.

On November 14, 2019, my biggest worry was a Spanish test. I am a freshman at Saugus High School, determined to get good grades. When I got to school, I made an appointment to go to the quad to meet Dominic, making it a habit of our regular pre-class chat.

Dominic and I both have big plans. That’s one of the things I admire about him, the vision he has for his future. We’ll talk about where we see ourselves after high school, the careers we want, the kind of people we hope to be – even ridiculous things like playing in the NBA at 4 feet 10 years old. and 14 years old. funny, silly, and the most amazing person I’ve ever met.

Our typical morning laugh and our plans were interrupted by gunfire, followed by six more shots. A bullet in my stomach.

While I’m grateful to be alive, I wake up to a new reality – one in which Dominic and another classmate of mine, Gracie Anne Muehlberger, are no longer alive. I’ll never do stupid TikTok with Dominic again, and our community has been deprived of Gracie’s infectious smile forever.

I later learned that we were shot by a 16-year-old Saugus High School student; Exactly why, we will never know. He brought his father’s gun to school – a gun I would eventually come to know as a “ghost gun. ”

At that time, the self-build Guns are not something I know, but I will quickly learn that they are the fastest growing public safety threat in our country. In fact, more than two-thirds of 80 identified online gun sellers started selling ghost gun parts after 2014. Anyone with a credit card, the skills to build an Ikea couch, and a bit of spare time can craft the gun that stole my best friend. Once considered a weapon of choice for terrorists, criminals, and others who can’t pass background checks, ghost guns are starting to appear in the hands of children and teenagers and in mass shootings in the United States. schools like mine – a trend that we unfortunately see in schools across the country.

The proliferation of ghost guns has devastated communities and families. According to the Ministry of Justice, law enforcement recovered nearly 20,000 suspected ghost guns in the last year alone. My home state, California, has unfortunately become the epicenter for these guns. In Los Angeles, the number of ghost guns recovered from crime scenes has increased to about 400 percent since 2017, according to a Los Angeles police report.

The shooter who took the lives of two of my school friends and changed my gun forever could only have access to one gun only because of his father, who was involved in numerous violations of the law and, according to Law enforcement reports, prohibited from owning a firearm, purchased a firearm. online ghost gun assembly. But those days are coming to an end. On Monday, the Biden administration perfecting a rule for regulating ghost guns that will, among other things, ensure that if a weapon looks like a gun, shoots like a gun, and kills like a gun, it will be treated like a gun. That means that the companies that are awash with ghost guns in our country will have to do business like any other gun seller. The gun’s core parts would need a serial number so the gun could be traced if it was used in a crime, and the company had to do a background check on its sales.

This change is not just out of the ordinary. After the shooting, I joined Student Needs Action, because I realized that nothing could ease the pain in my heart like preventing more senseless shootings. I also sued the seller of the ghost gun used at Saugus High, as well as the 16-year-old gunman’s mother. Supporters and survivors like me have been fighting to the end for this life-saving process at every level of government, from city halls to states to the White House. And now, we’ve got the most powerful gun-feeling commander-in-chief ever in the Oval Office.

A president realizes that thoughts and prayers alone are not enough.

A president who has stood up in the gun lobby for decades – and won.

A president who stands up for survivors like me.

So on Monday, I stood in the Rose Garden with President Biden representing not only me, but Dominic, Gracie, and thousands of other children, families, and communities who have known first-hand what these people are. How deadly the ghost gun is.

I learned that lesson on November 14, 2019, when I was faced with the fact that, as a high school student in the US, I had to worry about my life as much as my tests and grades. number. But, on Monday, I learned a new lesson – when survivors come together and a champion of gun feeling is in the office, progress happens.

And we’re not done yet – because this new rule is just the beginning. We will continue to fight for commonsense gun reforms, because we deserve to live in a country that prioritizes our safety. Let us be children. Let us be safe.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here