During a CNN panel discussion with teens over sensible gun regulations, one teen proposed arming more people in schools and having more armed guards in school. However, one Parkland, Florida, student went off on him.
"There's a lot better ways to protect our schools and protect our public areas than just to take away all of the guns," said Arizona teen Parker Delmoe.
Parkland student Julia Bishop said that if schools fill the halls with armed guards it would feel like a prison.
"How do you think you stop someone shooting people?" Louisiana student Jacob Scott shot back. "If everyday citizens have the right to carry, he could have been stopped altogether."
"Even if someone is trained, like Officer Peterson was at my school, there's no way to simulate an event like this," Bishop explained. "There's no possible way to practice or do an active shooter drill. He had high-capacity magazines, a semiautomatic weapon and killed 17 of my classmates in six minutes! Don't tell me a handgun could have stopped that!"
She went on to say that it doesn't matter how many guards are around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School now, she still doesn't feel safe. The only way she said she would feel safe is if an assault weapons ban was implemented.
The students all agreed on better background checks along with at least some form of regulations of assault weapons, but Delmoe claimed it wouldn't matter.
"I mean, if you look at the Las Vegas shooter, he was perfectly legal to get a gun," Delmoe said. "Nobody knew that he was going--"
The panel of teens cut him off to explain that it was exactly what they were talking about.
"Exactly! That's why you cut it off at the source," Bishop said.
"How will we defend ourselves if you take that right away?" Scott said, parroting an NRA talking point.
"We're human beings first," Bishop replied. "Our lives matter before political parties."
, Scott railed against the "left," who he said was behind the entire movement. Bishop shot back that the movement was completely student-run and that Scott doesn't know anything about their political affiliation.
"I'm not attacking you guys personally," he claimed. "I'm attacking the ones that seem to be backing this whole movement."
"This is a student-led movement. That's what it should be. We were the ones who had to hear the gunshots and stared down the barrel of a gun," Bishop said. "That's the end of it. No other adult, politician, no one funding money into this. People can donate money. They're not controlling or influencing us. They're influencing every single politician."
Scott also argued that mass shootings are never seen at gun shows for a reason. Instead, gun shows see many accidental shootings each year.
Fellow MSD student Tanzil Philip explained that Parkland was "a little bubble" and after the shooting "the bubble popped. We don't feel safe anymore. Even at the march Saturday, I was looking up and all of the buildings were really tall. I was wondering, could a shooter shoot down from there?"
Bishop said that Parkland was the one town where she would never be harmed, but not any more.
Watch the full argument below:
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