Illustration by Talia Mermin
For ages, gun violence has been a deeply saddening blight on the lives of many people around the country and the world.
Recently, as more and more terrible incidents have made their way into news stories, questions about how to decrease gun violence have been and are being discussed on large and small scales.
Here at Berkeley High School (BHS), the Berkeley High Students Demand Action (BHSDA) club has been adding their voice to the discussion.
The goal of BHSDA is to raise awareness at BHS about gun violence both locally and nationally.
“We also educate our peers about gun violence and how to get involved in the movement, create a platform for respectful debate as well as support and introduce legislation we feel would make our communities and country safer,” said Maren Frye and Roni Weissman, juniors in Berkeley International High School (BIHS) and leaders of BHSDA in email correspondence.
The club also allows students to make a difference in reducing gun violence. As shooting after shooting has appeared in the news, many students have become tired since few changes to gun control have been made and instances of shootings are anything but decreasing.
“It makes me angry that we are constantly seeing horrific mass shootings in the news and politicians are doing nothing about it,” said Taylor Kempf, a junior in BIHS and a member of the club.
“Common sense gun legislation is something that I am passionate about and believe should be the default,” said Charlie Kaplan-Pettus, a junior in Academic Choice (AC) and member of the club. “Also, I wanted to actually get things done, not just talk about it.”
Recently, BHSDA has worked with Mayor of Berkeley Jesse Arreguin to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), which is a growing group of over one thousand current and former mayors that support sensible gun laws to decrease gun violence in their communities. Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit organization, wrote on its website that MAIG was founded in 2006 with only fifteen mayors, but has since continued to grow into the group of more than one thousand people that it is today.
Frye and Weissman researched MAIG over the summer and, when they found that Berkeley had not already joined, the group met with Arreguín to encourage him to join the coalition. “In our meeting, he showed a lot of interest in joining, and officially joined about a month later,” said Frye and Weissman. Mayor Arreguín’s joining of MAIG is also one step towards Berkeley residents feeling safer in regards to gun violence, since they know that Arreguín is fighting for safer laws. Kayla Schalit, a junior in BIHS and BHSDA club member, said she thinks having Mayor Arreguín join MAIG is a “really positive thing and a step in the right direction to helping Berkeley become a safer city.” She continued, “also I think it’s a message that Berkeley is taking a stand against gun violence.”
BHSDA advocates not to take away guns from all Americans, but to create more sensible laws that stop guns from being given to people who will use them dangerously. This can be achieved through laws such as better background checks for gun owners and requiring safe locks on guns in homes.
The latter idea is what BHSDA is beginning to focus on. Kaplan-Pettus said that BHSDA is writing an ordinance that would “legally require all Berkeley residents who own guns to store them properly, either in a safe or with a trigger lock.” She thinks in the future the club will be able to remove guns from people charged with domestic violence and make sure they will not be able to purchase guns in the future. “In general, we support legislation that promotes safety and common sense, not taking people’s guns away,” said Kaplan-Pettus.
Measures like these, which might seem small, could in fact have huge effects on reducing deaths and injuries from guns. Not only are lives claimed by guns in intentional shootings; already in 2018, over 230 people in the United States have been injured in unintentional shootings, including children and teens, according to the Gun Violence Archive. When guns are easily accessible in homes, people — especially children — can find them, and accidently set them off. As well as these accidental instances of gun violence, ordinances such as these could help prevent teen suicides, many of which are carried out using firearms, according to Frye and Weissman. These are stories that have been heard time and time again, and simple measures such as the ones BHSDA is working towards could help stop many fatal accident from occurring.
Additionally, BHSDA supports closing loopholes in the distribution of guns and keeping guns away from people who may use them for harm, such as domestic abusers. Effectively, they support laws and background checks that would make it harder to just go out and buy a gun. “When guns are easily attainable, it puts everybody at risk,” Frye and Weissman added.
During Friday lunch meetings in C231, club members discuss current events, situations, and plan for the next weekend meeting. These dedicated club members get together on the weekends to contact their representatives, work on BHSDA’s website, write articles and press releases, draft ordinances, or meet with guests like Laurie Leiber, a leader at the East Bay Moms Demand Action. At their meetings, BHSDA writes articles, calls representatives, and finds organizations to help spread their message and work to make their communities safer. Many club members joined BHSDA because they have a strong passion for common sense gun legislation.
“I feel strongly that our country needs stricter gun laws,” Kempf said. “It makes me angry that we are constantly seeing horrific mass shootings in the news and politicians are doing nothing about it. The problem is clearly the lack of gun control, but many people refuse to recognize this.” Kaplan-Pettus additionally wanted to take action and “actually get things done, not just talk about it.”
“BHSDA is a club that gets involved in real world changes, that’s something I really appreciate,” she said.