Considering the most recent instances of gun violence, there needs to be a renewed sense of urgency on an issue concerning safety and security. Guns, concealed and restricted in certain spaces, have no place on college campuses.

Arming underpaid teachers who are untrained for hazardous duty to protect students is just another desperate attempt by the NRA and its paid supporters in positions of power throughout state and federal government to change the subject from our real need for stronger gun laws and responsible restrictions to increase safety across America and especially for our children in schools! What will the NRA use as an excuse when a teacher misfires and kills students or a SWAT team mistakes a teacher with a gun for a shooter? Please make sure every teacher or coach you know has an opportunity to sign this and if possible, include where they teach or coach sports.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee say they have obtained documents that suggest Russia used the National Rifle Association (NRA) to help President Trump's 2016 campaign. The NRA has too much influence over our elected politicians. Where is all their money coming from? Is Russia a prime contributor and have they infiltrated the NRA? Because the NRA refuses to even discuss common sense gun laws, they are a threat to national security. Our FBI needs to look into the leadership and finances of the NRA. I am a gun owner but I don't believe I need to be a member of an organization like the NRA to be protected by the 2nd amendment. That amendment has been around since the constitution was adopted. I don't buy the scare tactics of the NRA.

Our students have been threatened on more than one occasion and the shooting deaths in our schools nationally are on the rise.

The Parkland Shooting has shocked the United States as a whole. Many students my age were involved. My fellow classmates and I do not feel safe going to school anymore. We need to improve security at schools and change gun laws. People with mental illnesses should not be able to purchase a gun. Schools should consider equipment such as metal detectors.

Gun violence continues to plague this nation's schools. We, as an impacted population, should be allowed to protest against laws, or lack thereof, that harm us. Many other schools have created plans to orchestrate this event safely and efficiently. There is no reason why Clearview cannot do the same. One of the goals of education should be to foster active citizenship in its students and to stifle this effort instead of encouraging it is counter-intuitive.

Twenty-nine gun massacres in the first 45 days of this year. Enough is enough. We must demand laws that impose serious gun restrictions. No more loopholes. No more gun lobby. No more BS.

The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day last week was the eighth school shooting of 2018 – the eighth! – which is more than one school shooting per week. The numbers are staggering. Since Columbine in 1998, more than 150,000 primary and secondary school students have experienced a school shooting. When our schools are no longer safe, how can Congress continue to do nothing but wring its hands over America’s gun violence problem? It’s unconscionable. Florida school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez, a senior in high school, got to the heart of the issue in no time flat. In a powerful speech at a gun safety rally in Ft. Lauderdale, which left us in tears, Emma railed, “To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!” Emma is right: The influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is driving our government’s massive failure to even attempt to reduce gun violence. Politicians who continue to accept campaign contributions from the NRA and gun industry PACs implicitly support an all-types-of-guns-everywhere-for-everyone agenda, which points in only one direction: more gun violence. Something is happening. When Emma Gonzalez spoke, she projected the pain and sense of betrayal shared by her entire generation over the fact that adults have not delivered on our most sacred charge: to keep them safe. Now Emma and young people across the country are calling BS on adult excuses for failing to achieve any progress on gun safety. They are rising up to fight for their own safety and future. As adults, our job now is to help our children succeed where we have failed. We join our children in calling BS. There can be no more excuses for failing to protect them from gun violence. That’s why we’re taking their lead and telling members of Congress to pledge to reject donations from the NRA and the corporate PACs of gun manufacturers.

As students of Rocky Mountain High School (Fort Collins, Co.), it is our unalienable right to stay safe as U.S. citizens. By passively allowing citizens to obtain guns through less than adequate background checks and lenient mental health screenings, the U.S. government in impeding on our rights by allowing our safety to be risked every day at school. In order to maintain a representative democracy, the intention of our founding fathers, you need to hear the cries of U.S. citizens across the nation and create a country that is not willing to protect gun rights over human lives.

Anita Britt is a member of the South Florida community and serves on the Board of Trustees of St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens. She is an alumna of Penn State University. She joined the American Outdoor Brands board on February 6, 2018, just eight days before the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. Ms. Britt, we know this is not what you signed up for! As members of these communities, and the greater public, we urge you to end your association with a company that profits from making and selling the AR-15 style rifles used in numerous school shootings and mass shootings across America!

I haven't been personally affected, but we never know if we could be next. That is what is scary about this whole thing.

We are NC parents, educators, and concerned citizens who are against arming teachers as a solution to gun violence in schools. Our NC teachers need adequate resources to help them educate and nurture students, not guns that turn their roles into that of armed guards. This is an unacceptable proposal that places children at further risk, and therefore we call on our legislature to reject any proposal to arm teachers.