"Why Not Arm the Students?"
Original artwork by Don Barkhouse III (instagram — and thanks!)
1. Guardian Angels
Sam Timms
Student at Grassy Heights
To be honest, I’m just surprised nobody thought to say it earlier. Everyone was thinking it, you know? After what happened with Mr. Evans, and even before that with the first shooting. I heard whispers. People saying this is better or that is better. Stories. Rumors.
The truth? Everyone was just too scared to say it out loud. What about my reputation? What about my social standing? My public image? Those are all well and good when you live a safe life, a life without fear. But reputation, social standing, and public image? They’re a little less important when you’re getting shot at, you know?
So I figured if it had to be anyone, why not me?
David Velasquez
Former teacher at Grassy Heights
“Why not arm the students?”
I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. And I couldn’t believe it when I saw who said it, either. I’ve known Sam since he was little. I coached him for a year when his parents wanted him to wrestle.
But there he was, a boy of only 16, standing in front of the whole town saying these five preposterous, unbelievable words, each of them sending a wave of silence across the crowd.
Dumbstruck. That’s what I was. I heard the words and I knew what each of them meant but I couldn’t understand them. I tried to tell myself they were something different. Or that they at least meant something different.
Evidently, Sam must have noticed the reaction, too, because he quietly leaned into the microphone and repeated himself.
“Why not arm the students?”
Laurie Parker
Parent
It was surreal. That’s the only good word I have for it. To see a 16-year-old kid, his voice still not fully broken, making an argument for arming students as a countermeasure to school shootings.
It was like watching debate club, but in a bizarro world.
I still remember the crux of it, too. He said, “If we’re not going to get rid of guns, and if we’re not going to do anything to stop the wrong people from getting a hold of them, then we need to send a strong message. We need to tell these shooters that they’ll pay if they ever come to our school. We need to strike fear and doubt into the hearts of these shooters, because right now they only need to make one simple decision: Do I or don’t I?”
That sent shivers down my spine. I remember thinking, “Is this what we’ve come to? Is this really where we’re at now?”
And maybe it was just the general zeitgeist of the time — and the Mr. Evans incident didn’t help — but that boy’s message resonated with a lot of people. A lot of them. A whole lot more than you’d expect.
Jason Collins
Principal at Grassy Heights
Look, I know that now it’s in bad taste to say he had a point. I know the “correct” and “proper” reaction, according to the rest of the country, is to be shocked and aghast, terrified that someone could even imagine arming children to defend our schools.
I know that. I do.
But if you were there, in that room, on that night, and if you listened to Sam’s argument and you felt the fear and anger and regret like a fog around all of us, you probably would have said it.
You would have said, “Maybe that boy has a point.”
And if you didn’t, at the very least, the thought would have crossed your mind.
Blake Driver
Student
The government can’t afford to have a dedicated shooter-response team at every school. They just can’t. Can you image how expensive that would be? And how boring a job it would be most of the time?
It would be wasted money.
But us kids? We were already at school. We were right there. And nobody seemed to realize we were primed for it. We were ready. We’ve always been ready. We watch the movies they try to ban, we play the games they say are a bad influence, and we know social media better than any other generation.
Who better to train as your defense than the people who are desensitized to the shock, have put in hundreds of hours of virtual practice, and have a huge number of ways to contact their peers while researching known enemies?
Go on, think about it. I’ll wait.
And besides, what does age matter, anyway?
Did Mr. Evans’ age help us when it mattered?
Jason Collins
Principal
Sam’s suggestion came at a very fragile time for the school and the community.
We’d had that shooting a year and a half ago — by an alum, no less — and then we got wrapped up in that wave of wanting to arm teachers. It’s easy to think it was a bad idea now that we have an alternative, but at the time we didn’t have much else. It wasn’t like anyone was going to actually get rid of the core problem, right?
And look, I know how people feel about the school’s decision, and what happened as a result, but I really trusted Brad. He was a good shot at the firing range. A really good shot! And he knew the guidebook inside and out, too. He seemed like a perfect fit. He really did.
But no amount of bullets in a target at a firing range can prepare you for the real thing, can it? There’s a world of difference, and we know that now.
We learned the hard way.
Sam Timms
Student
I still remember the day of the second shooting. I can’t forget it.
He forgot he had a gun. HE FORGOT.
Mr. Evans was supposed to be our protector — our savior, even — but when the shooter came in he was the first under his desk. I saw it happen, right before the bullets ripped through that same desk and left us all without the protection we thought was there to save us.
Do you know how that feels? To see your only line of defense revealed to be a spineless coward? To know that the one person the school trusted to defend you from just this thing was nothing more than a poster boy? A good luck charm?
How about you try trusting the system after your classmates get shot? You try going “back to normal” after you survive, only because you were trapped under two dead bodies and too scared to even scream.
David Velasquez
Former teacher
I liked Brad a lot. He was polite and friendly, always willing to lend a hand. He was strong and trustworthy, and a stand-up member of the community. But he never should have had a gun. He never should have had that responsibility. And to this day, I think he was mostly forced into it.
When that first shooting happened and everyone started rallying for protection, Brad was the only staff with gun experience. The only one who’d ever been hunting, and the only one to ever visit a firing range. And so all the pressure was on him… from the parents, the community, the local government, heck, even the president; he just couldn’t get away from it. Couldn’t bring himself to just say no.
So he did it. He took the training, did the interviews, and posed in class with a holster on his side and a smile on his face. They made him out to be a star teacher, and a responsible gun owner, and the guardian angel of the school.
And Brad was all of those things. He really was.
But he never should have had a gun.
2. Changing of the Guard
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
You can’t really guess or predict when these things are going to happen. You just have to expect them all the time. But weirdly enough, after it happened the second time we actually felt safer. Lightning never strikes the same place twice, and all of that.
Well, three times, I guess.
But it’s a weird dynamic; you live with the constant fear of a shooting on the horizon, but you also have to put on this facade of just trying to live a normal life. Even if there’s a shooting in your neighborhood, the rest of the world just keeps on spinning, you know?
But for us, it’s like every time we think we’re getting over it, and every time we think we’re in the clear, it happens again.
Except that third time, when that third shooter came, the outcome was different. I don’t want to say “good,” even if that’s how most people saw it. I still don’t feel right saying that.
So I always tell people the same thing. That third time, the outcome was different.
Sarah Anderson
Parent
The first thing people felt was relief, I think. Joy. You gotta look at it from the school’s point of view. See it like the teachers and the students. This was the first time there’d ever been a school shooting with only a single casualty. And that casualty was the shooter himself!
What’s not to like about that, you know?
But a little while after, there was a feeling in the air. People don’t like to talk about it but it was there, like a ringing in your ears. A creeping suspicion.
All we knew at the time — and all I knew as a parent myself — was that our kids were safe. Later we found out we weren’t just the only place in the country to suffer through multiple shootings, we were also the only place in the country to successfully defend ourselves from one.
But it always bothered me that the boy was ready. That scared me, you know? To think that all this time, he might have been waiting for it.
Or worse yet, that somehow he knew it was coming.
Blake Driver
Student
I was doing it months before the shooter came. It wasn’t like a coincidence or anything like that. I’d just lost faith in the system: in the teachers, the police, the government. And after the ginormous fuck-up that was Mr. Evans, I knew that if I wanted to defend myself and my friends, I had to be the one to do it.
So I brought a gun to school. And nobody knew, so it was pretty much the same as not even bringing one.
But it’s never been just me. It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now. It’s a network. There are others. Failsafes, we call them. I can’t tell you more than that and I won’t. We can’t let people know too much about it because it puts us at risk.
The only reason I’m telling you now is because I want people to know. You take me out, and there are others.
Creating a sense of fear is important. As students and kids, we had to live with that every day after the shooting. We had to get used to it, like it was just another kind of puberty. So the best thing we can do now is to make use of it. Share our fear with the people who want to do us harm.
Make them feel it.
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
When he did it, it was fucking like, wow.
That guy stomped up the hallway and kicked the door open. I closed my eyes, and when I heard the gunshot I remember thinking “How many shots do I have to listen to before one of those bullets belongs to me?”
But there wasn’t another shot. There was just a man writhing on the ground gurgling, and leaking away the last moments of his life, but even that felt drowned in a weird silence.
What we all saw was Blake, standing behind a table with a gun in his hands. He still had it pointed straight ahead as though firing that one shot had paused time. And even though I could put it together — Blake with his gun, the dying shooter on the ground — I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I couldn’t believe I was still breathing, and it was all because of our classmate.
David Velasquez
Former teacher
It was his dad’s gun, actually. He won’t tell you that, but I’m pretty sure everyone knows. He likes to say it was his grandfather’s, though. He likes that narrative better, because the story goes that his grandfather was a police officer who died in a shooting. So making that one shot, and saving his class, it was like a symbolic revenge.
Blake likes to say he saw it coming, and he knew what to do, and his body just reacted the way it was supposed to, but I saw his eyes when it happened. I saw what was in them, too. He was scared and stunned. A hint of disbelief across his face. But also there was an understanding there, too. It was like he understood a kind of power, now.
Sometimes I wonder if you have to take a life before you really understand what Blake did that day. To see the world change before your eyes.
Sam Timms
Student
The week after it happened was crazy. Just crazy. Blake was a full-blown hero. Everyone wanted to interview him. Everyone. Sometimes they interviewed the teachers and some of the rest of us, but really it was the Blake Driver show. They even let him bring his gun to school.
He never looked very comfortable in those interviews, but he put on a brave face and answered the questions, and then his Twitter and Instagram accounts exploded. After that the offers started rolling in. Gun sponsorships, brand endorsements, that kind of thing. But he turned them all down. Can you believe that? He said, “I don’t want this to be about me. I want my actions to be a symbol for others. Our teachers always tell us that we’re the future, and our actions determine the way forward. Well I showed it. We’re going to be the ones to change the world now.”
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
He said he deleted all his social media because he didn’t like the attention, but I always wondered if it was something different, like if there was something there he didn’t want people to see.
I guess we’ll never know though, right?
Jim Coen
Reporter
If you watch those interviews, it’s like Blake is wearing a mask. Like he prepared for the questions in advance and practiced all his answers. It’s just that rhythm and cadence, you know? It’s like he’s reading off a teleprompter somewhere in his brain.
But did you ever see the time that blogger asked him whether a part of him enjoyed it or not? I mean, what a stupid question in the first place, right? But if you watch closely, you can see something flare up in Blake’s eyes. Just for a second. A tiny flicker like the teleprompter pauses, and something in his eyes says, “How dare you! Do you have any idea what I just did? What I can do?”
And yeah, later they discovered that same blogger was working with the Chinese on a smear campaign against our own government and he’s in jail somewhere or whatever, but I still think there’s something in that one question and the reaction it provoked.
Did anyone else feel like that, or was it just me?
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Officially, and according to the statements, the military visited the school to talk with Blake about what happened. They said it was about gun safety and shooter prevention. And the crazy thing? Somehow, at the end of that meeting, Blake was allowed to keep bringing his gun to school.
But when you listened to the teachers and the principal talk about it — when they thought you weren’t listening — it didn’t seem like gun safety was why they came at all.
What they did was they brought as much footage as they could, everything they’d cobbled together from all the social media footage, and they made a timeline of events. After that, they asked Blake for his thought process, what he’d do next, and how he’d prepare better next time.
I even heard they wanted to get his ideas for training a small group of guerrilla defenders.
Failsafes, they called them.
Jason Collins
Principal
Yeah, some of the kids say that our school is a test school for a future rollout of teenage failsafes, but you hear a lot of rumors out there, you know? What do they call it now? Fake news?
Anyway, you’ve all walked the corridors yourselves and you’ve been in the classes. You’ve seen it: We have one firearm on the premises, and that firearm belongs to our honorary school guard, Blake Driver.
And listen: I’ve looked into the rumors myself, and I’ve kept an ear close to the ground. I listen to what these kids are talking about, and what’s cool. If there really is a cabal of teenage assassins at this school, I’ve yet to see any proof of it.
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Adults are so stupid. Really, though.
So incredibly stupid.
3. Balancing Truths
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
The news made a big thing of it, but not all of us thought it was a good idea. Even if he never fired it, he was still carrying a gun around school. Lots of us have known Blake from before he was a hero. We know him as just another kid, and we know what that means; he’s growing up, trying to work out who he is, he has problems, stuff like that. Just like all the rest of us.
Some of the teachers have talked to his parents about his behavior before. Like, he’s gotten into fights. Sometimes he’d argue with teachers about whether the textbook was factual or not. He’d get really mad sometimes if things didn’t go his way. I mean, it always worked out in the end and he was never expelled or anything, but you’d hear rumors it was because of his dad.
And then there was that hacking thing. One of the teachers, Mr. Fields, they found pornography on his computer. Like, child pornography. He got fired because of it and moved to Japan. Anyway, I heard a lot of people say it was Blake, but he never fessed up and nobody ever followed it through.
Just another rumor, I guess.
Sam Timms
Student
There were a few news sites that tried to dig into the truth. They looked into that first shooting, and then the Mr. Evans incident, and then the day that Blake saved us. But actually, now that I think about it, saying they tried to dig into the “truth” is unfair, isn’t it? It’s like assuming everything we already know isn’t the truth.
But that’s the news for you, am I right?
Even though there were investigative articles on the internet trying to prove this rumor or that rumor, and that the third shooter was a set up and Mr. Evans’ gun was tampered with, well, the mainstream media wasn’t interested. It was unfounded and nobody had any evidence, and none of the kids wanted to go on the record about it. The news reporters said it was on account of Blake now walking around with a gun — intimidation, they said — but if you ask me, it’s because the evidence was never really there in the first place.
David Velasquez
Former teacher
I gotta tell you though, you talk to students different when they’re carrying weapons. You say you’ll treat them the same as everyone else, and you try, but you can’t. You just can’t. You’ve got that little voice in your head constantly reminding you that if you do something wrong you’ll get shot.
The power balance shifts. I mean, if you look at class attendance and anecdotal evidence, it seems like the school has really improved, you know? Attendance is up, grades are up, behavior issues are down. It seems like a net positive. But now there’s a weird paranoia in the air, and a different color of fear floating around; now there’s the external, looming threat of a school shooting, and the weird, sometimes unfounded suspicion that in every class you teach, some of those students are carrying.
People like to say it evens the playing field, and keeps teachers accountable, but what does that even mean? I don’t know if I like my behavior being governed — whether subtly or otherwise — by kids who still don’t know who they are, what they want to do, and don’t have the experience or worldview to make those kinds of judgement calls.
And people can say whatever they want, but that’s why I left. I’m just uncomfortable with it.
Sam Timms
Student
Everything cooled down for a while, you know. People just kind of went back to normal.
There was a small scandal with Mr. Velasquez’s computer, where they found students’ social media and message history on it, but everyone had kind of suspected he was like that anyway. The rumors were going around, and there were enough of them that everyone kind of just knew. He was always confiscating students’ phones and we always wondered if he was getting into our data, and I guess now we have our answer.
But it just goes to show, you know? Sometimes what’s frightening isn’t the threat of an outside attacker. At least when someone’s trying to shoot you that’s direct and to the point. What’s even scarier are the people you’re supposed to be able to trust, and the people in the system you grow close to, who are subtly taking advantage of you every single day.
It’s scary to peel back the mask and take a look at the real person, and find out they’re a kind of monster.
4. The Conscientious Protector
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Danny was my friend. We sometimes made jokes about shooting people like in the movies, but we were never going to do it. At least, I never thought we were. Danny never seemed crazy to me. Never showed me any weapons. Yeah, he built a map of the school for a video game, but it was just a battle royale thing. It was just kids goofing around.
So when they found everything on his computer and his phone, I felt like I was seeing stuff about a different person. It’s all really new to me. Really… foreign. It’s like realizing your friend was wearing a mask all along.
I feel like I was betrayed, but at the same time I miss him. He was my friend, and I can’t seem to let go of that.
I fucking hate this feeling.
Sandra Ryan
Teacher
Danny was a quiet kid. It was hard to even know he existed. He had average grades, liked video games, only had a couple of close friends.
I mean, I don’t know what you want me to say. He didn’t look like a school shooter, if that’s what you’re asking. I didn’t look into his eyes and peer into a soul of burning hatred.
So I mean, thank god for Blake, you know? I never would have even guessed about Danny, and it would’ve been one of those things where once I realized it, it would’ve already been too late.
But I guess that’s the world we live in now. You can’t trust anyone anymore. The greatest threats are no longer foreign, they’re domestic.
They’re at home.
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Everybody knew Blake didn’t like Danny.
We just never knew why until Danny got shot, I guess.
Mary Samuels
Daniel’s mother
He was my son, and I loved him. His father left us a long time ago and I wasn’t always the best mother, but I still can’t believe the things people are saying about him.
The things on his computer, the text messages, the notes on his phone; they’re not my son. I know who my son was, and he wasn’t the person they’re digging up. The person they say they’re uncovering. He was just a 16-year-old boy who still didn’t know who he wanted to be, and was still trying to find himself, and who didn’t really know how to talk to people. He didn’t fit in like other people, but he always tried. He always tried.
And now he’s gone.
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Here’s what I know: Danny and Jess were friends, and Blake always thought something was going on between them. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t. They just grew up together, so they had like that bond between them, you know? But also, it was the kind of bond you can’t easily replace. The kind that’s built from going to kindergarten together and sharing lunch boxes and whatever.
But Blake had always had a crush on Jess, like forever, so this thing with Danny always burned him up.
Is this why Blake found a way to shoot Danny?
I didn’t say that.
All I’ll say is that if you use my name in your piece like I asked you not to, you’ll probably find some stuff on my phone and on my computer in the next couple of months, too. You think you’re chasing a couple of kids with guns, but you really have no idea, do you?
Sam Timms
Student
I actually don’t think it would have been a big deal if the news hadn’t brought the Star Wars angle to it. Really, I don’t. I mean, when you look at all the facts, there’s a really clear, really logical thread to follow: Danny was planning something bad, and he got found out. When Blake asked him to stop, he went crazy and got shot. What else do you want me to say? The police found a gun and a knife on him, and you already know what they found on his computer.
Blake stopped a bad thing. Are you hearing that? Understanding it? He stopped a bad thing.
But then that one news program had to bring the Star Wars angle to it. They had to compare Blake to Han and Danny to Greedo. “Who shot first?” they said, and “What does it mean if Blake shot first?”
I mean, I haven’t even seen the old films, but I’ve heard enough about them that I get what they’re trying to say. If you ask me, it’s just a lot of people hunting for views and clicks, that kind of thing.
All I know is this: Han was the good guy, right?
Jason Collins
Principal
We’ve had some bad luck. It’s true. We never imagined the school could lose so much to fiream-related incidents. But why are we focusing so much on the lives lost, when we should be focusing on the lives saved?
Because of Blake, classrooms full of kids still have futures. They have tomorrows to look forward to, and years left to plan dreams they still haven’t had yet. That’s a real achievement if you ask me.
And yes, I’ve heard all the stories. I’ve read all about the rumors. But I’ve interviewed the boy myself! I’ve talked to him! We’ve been through the footage together, and I’ve grilled him all about it, right in that seat you’re sitting in now. All the pieces fit.
But you know what? You people astound me. You really do. To think that the first time Blake’s a hero, but the second time suddenly you’re looking for ways to make him a villain? Is that your job now? To ruin the lives of the people who saved ours?
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
You want to know why no student except Sam and Blake wants to have their name on this thing?
It’s because we’re scared.
It’s because we know.
5. A Case for Preemptive Justice
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Man, the whole thing with Jess is just so weird, you know? She had everything going for her. She had good grades, she was getting attention from the local paper for her art, and it really seemed like she was heading for big things. Probably town hall, maybe something more.
She just seemed like she had a bright future.
My parents think it’s a bad idea to stay. They’re looking at houses and schools in other states. Other countries. They say if a white girl with a future can go crazy and plan to blow up the whole school, the whole town is probably doomed.
Me? Well, I read the news sometimes and I wonder: Is it really any better anywhere else?
Sandra Ryan
Teacher
I miss her. I do. Jess was such a joy in class. So hungry to learn, so eager to build a future. Such a good friend to her classmates.
I just can’t believe it. I really can’t. I don’t want to.
I thought about leaving. I did. But Blake told me I was important to the school. Important to him and his friends. The parents. He made it known it’d be a great loss if I left. He convinced me to stay.
So here I am, still trying my best.
And hoping for it, too.
Angela Fitzgerald
Jess’s mother
Haven’t you people had enough? Haven’t you done enough already?
First you make him into a hero and then you make him into a villain, and now you don’t know how to handle what you’ve created? And then you want me to talk about my dead daughter in front of a camera, even after all that’s happened and all that still could?
What are you even looking for now? What? Why do you keep knocking on my door? Asking the same questions? Do you really think this time it’s going to be different?
…
Just… please. Leave me alone. Leave us alone.
Please.
Jim Coen
Reporter
I am playing with fire letting you put my name on this thing. You’ve seen what happened to the others, right? Anyway, tell me this: When was the last time in recent history where a would-be school shooter was a female? Where she was a teenager?
It just. Doesn’t. Happen.
It doesn’t add up.
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Lots of people saw the argument go down three weeks before the incident, but there are conflicting reports on what happened. Even the school cameras don’t show anything; it looks like Blake and Jess were just talking.
That means you’ve only got the testimony of students to go on, and they all seem to hear something different.
So how do you work out who’s telling the truth?
Sam Timms
Student
I can tell you what happened. It’s not very complicated. It’s just that people think more emotions were involved than there really were. Boys, girls, teen romance, heartbreak, that kind of thing.
People love drama. I mean, that’s why you’re here in the first place, isn’t it?
Blake wanted to comfort Jess. He wanted to help her through the pain of losing a friend. It must have been really hard, realizing your friend since kindergarten was a twisted monster. A would-be murderer.
But Jess couldn’t see Blake that way. Didn’t want to.
She was too far gone.
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
She dumped him, is what happened.
He asked her out and she said no.
She said he murdered her friend and he didn’t like it.
He was a teenager with a gun, and had permission to use it.
What else do you need to know?
Sam Timms
Student
Blake’s got a good nose for this kind of thing. He said there was something about Jess when he talked to her, so me and the Failsafes looked into it. We did some digging — we have permission; there’s paperwork — and we uncovered something. Recipes for poison, explosives, and plans for setting them both up at strategic locations around the school.
A lot of people think it’s crazy that Jess would think something like that. That she was planning something like that. But she did, and she was. She was never the same after what happened to Danny, and she always blamed Blake for it, even though he tried to help her.
It wasn’t pleasant, but it was the truth, and we had to do something about it. People keep on talking about proof and innocence, but we were a group of kids with two choices: Save the school before anything happened, or let some of our friends die to get ourselves some proof.
How many people do you know that have to make a choice like that at 16?
Jason Collins
Principal
Yes, I gave Blake the key, and also permission to talk with Jess in the music room after school. I’d seen all the evidence, and Sam had assured me this was the best course of action. Kids are the best at talking to kids, after all. And that’s all I thought it was going to be.
Look. I’d known Jess since she started at this school. She was so bright and bubbly, and it was so hard to believe she’d planned all those things, even with the passing of her best friend. I felt so sure she’d listen to reason.
But she didn’t, and that’s why it happened.
That’s why she’s dead.
Blake Driver
Student
I don’t like talking about it. I didn’t want it to happen. But I also had a job to do.
So I did it.
David Velasquez
Former teacher
Have we not learned anything from this? Do we not want to?
It’s like we’re all closing our eyes when we see it. The truth, I mean. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s like we don’t want to look at it because it shows us our reflection and we know we’re not going to like it. We don’t want to deal with it so we just don’t.
You think just because someone hid things on my computer that my opinion doesn’t matter anymore? That I can’t still speak the truth from prison? For god’s sake, look in the fucking mirror, people. We’re never going to be able to fix ourselves up until we’re willing to look at what we have to work with.
And the longer we leave it, the worse it’s going to get.
Sam Timms
Student
Evidence? What evidence?
Go ahead. Look at the facts. Look at them and tell me what they say. Go on, I’ll wait. And anyway, who are you to tell us what decisions we make? We found out someone wanted to kill us, and we stopped her.
Student
(Asked to remain anonymous)
Doesn’t anyone else think it’s weird that we’ve had so many shootings here? In such a short period of time? All at the one school?
That’s weird, right?
I think it’s weird.
I feel like that’s enough of a reason to get rid of guns.
Isn’t it?
Blake Driver
Student
If you find that proof you’re looking for, you come back and you talk to me, okay? But until you find it, I’m going to be right here trying to protect my school and my friends from the evil that’s out there. I’m going to be practicing and preparing, and waiting for the next time something bad happens.
Because it will. Something bad is going to happen. It always does.
And besides, who are you going to give the guns to if you can’t arm the kids anymore? There’s only us left.
And we’re the future.
—
Music
(Dustin O’Halloran — Fragile N.4)
If you enjoyed this story, I also publish a new story monthly in my newsletter here.
Thanks for reading!
— Hengtee