Christopher Cotton is a high school English teacher in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

He wrote this article for the school newspaper. 

He writes:

The pattern of responses to school shootings is maddeningly familiar: carnage, thoughts and prayers, too soon to talk, don’t politicize, stalling, relegating, forgetting. People who support some sort of common-sense gun restrictions —  the vast majority of Americans —  have been driven to near-insanity by the impotence of our legislators. We thought Columbine might force a change. We were sure that Sandy Hook, with its young victims, would be the tipping point. But America fell into the same pattern.

Now there is something new under the sun.

What’s new is: YOU.

We adults have utterly failed to budge Washington’s inertia. But you students have a unique moral authority on this issue. You are the ones who pay the price. You are the ones who have to live or die with the results of Congress’ prostration to the gun lobby. As we have seen with news footage and viral videos, when teenagers speak up on this issue they cannot be shouted down. They have a clarity and authority that utterly dissipates the smog that befouls our political discourse.

“You are the ones who have to live or die with the results of Congress’ prostration to the gun lobby.”

I’ve seen legislators hamstrung by that mantra, “It’s too soon to talk about gun restrictions.” I’ve never heard an effective response; the argument has taken on the force of self-evident truth. But now I’ve seen a teenager pop that balloon with a single piece of common sense: “It’s not too soon. It’s too late.”

Teachers care, but the legislators ignore them. Oh, it’s just those unions, looking for smaller classes or other privileges.

Parents care, but they are not organized.

Administrators care, but they have to worry about their school’s public relations.

Students care, and they are not afraid. They are idealistic. They want fairness. They want justice. They have energy. They have not been beaten down by the system. No one can accuse them of being self-interested, unless self-interest means you hope to stay alive.