Exposing the Issue of Gun Violence in American Schools

[Izza]

Erik Larson’s book Lethal Passage follows sixteen-year-old Nicholas Elliot as he acquires a semiautomatic weapon and attempts a massacre at Virginia Beach High School. Elliot is depicted as a teen with a troubled past who is facing harassment and bullying at school and family problems at home. In December of 1988, he walked into his school with the Cobray M-11/9 and ended up murdering one teacher and severely injuring others. One can only imagine how much more devastating the effects would have been had the semiautomatic not malfunctioned.

This book is honestly very hard to read simply because all of the details are so real and while Larson’s book reads like fiction, I have to remind myself many times that this is the reality in the United States education system right now. The book also illuminates the process of acquiring such a dangerous weapon. It is common knowledge these days that it is fairly easy to acquire a semiautomatic weapon but I am still shocked when reading about the exact steps that Elliot takes in order to do so as a sixteen-year-old boy.

While Lethal Passage follows the story of Nicholas Elliot, it also exposes gun culture in the United States. I felt that this was what made this book so real and relevant to current events. Instead of simply bringing light to the issue, the author made numerous suggestions as well to resolve the conflict, which I felt were extremely straightforward and argued well. As someone who is already in favor of gun control, I realize that my opinion on this book may be biased due to my views, but the real and gory way in which it is written is horrifying enough to make everyone stop and ponder the topic no matter what side they take on the issue.

Overall, I truly loved the brutal honesty with which Larson writes this book. Gun violence in schools has become more and more common especially lately and is personally a topic that causes me a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety every day. Although this book has an older copyright, I hope it can become more popular again and at least stirs some thoughts that could lead to a change in the current system.

[Salict]

I want to say a special thank you to the author for bringing up such important topics for discussion. Firearms control in the United States is completely different from firearms control in Canada. I highly recommend reading the article faze.ca/gun-control-canada-vs-usa/ which is devoted to this problem. In order to be recognized in this topic, you need to read a lot and learn something new every day.