Grade 10 Artwork

Take a Stand Against Gun Violence

By: Rachel Lehner 

1. My collage is about gun violence, specifically American gun laws. In the US, there are approximately 300,000,000 guns sold per year that is nearly one for every member of the population. Americans are allowed to bear arms as it is outlined in the Constitution as their Second Amendment rights. This constitutional right violates other people’s rights to safety, security, and life. In the US there were 372 mass shootings in 2015, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870. A mass shooting is defined as a single shooting event which killed or injured four or more people including the attacker. In the next 10 it is projected that the number of people killed in mass American shooting will exceed 339,000 and that is roughly equivalent to the population of Tampa, Florida. For my project, I wanted to bring awareness to the idiocy surrounding the second amendment right.
   
   It’s time we amend the Second Amendment. America needs to impose stricter regulations for obtaining and using guns. We need to have more in-depth background checks and other ways of classifying people as safe gun owners. We also need to ban weapons like assault weapon/ military grade weapons and regulate guns that are purchased by people. For example, not let an 18-year-old come into Walmart and buy a machine gun but only let him buy on nine caliber shotgun. Just like you can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded movie theater, you can’t use religious freedoms and beliefs to justify a human sacrifice or mass shooting, such as an affiliation with ISIS. It’s time we amend the Second Amendment right to make the regulations and guidelines clear. You have the right to bear arms as a form of protection, but not to own military grade weapons. We have to slowly amend the Second Amendment to find a balance between respecting the rights outlined by American founders with the safety of our population. Justice John Paul Stevens, former Supreme Court justice of the United States suggested amending the Constitution to change the Second Amendment by adding five extra words, his suggestion was, “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of people to keep and bear arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed.” His suggestion came from the immediate need to protect the nation from foreign invasions, such as ISIS recruits. I, however, would suggest different change to the Second Amendment, [my changes are in italics], “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the state of security of a free State, the right of people to responsibly keep and bear reasonable arms for their protection shall not be infringed.” This keeps the purpose of the amendment, which is for protection but gets rid of all the uncertainty about the use of arms, and the type of arms.
   
   
2. The articles I chose to put all my collage were Donald Trump’s political party’s views on the Second Amendment. I chose these because he is a strong believer in protecting the Second Amendment right, as he thinks it will “make America great again.” I also chose these because Donald Trump is running to be the president of the United States in the 2016 elections. Based on the current state of the primaries, I can presume he will be the Republican candidate running for President of the United States of America. If Donald Trump wins the election his over-the-top beliefs about the Second Amendment right will be the new gun laws. Donald Trump wants to make the concealed carry permit, which gives you the right to carry your weapon around the streets with you valid in every state just like a driver’s license. He believes that if you can drive with your drivers license in any state, and that’s not even a right, then surely we should be able to carry our concealed weapon in any state we want because that is a right, not a privilege.
   
   
3. I chose a picture of Donald Trump standing in front of the American flag. This picture was taken during one of his speeches while running for president. I chose this picture because it shows that Donald Trump’s egregious policies and stance on gun laws will not make America great again but in actuality make America worse at protecting its own citizens. It also shows that the beliefs of most American are aligned with Donald Trump’s gun views as 8 in 10 Americans don’t want to change the second amendment right.
   
   
4. I found it was very difficult to do the photo transfer technique because you had to push very gently, and I’m not good at that, and it required a great deal of patience, which I don’t have. If I did this process again, I would try to do it on the wood because I think that it is easier on the wood as you can apply more pressure without the image fading.
   
   
5. I think the concept and design of my collage was very well thought out and really amazing. I thought I did a great job designing it and the contrast between the text border and the picture maker really the theme stand out. I also think my slogan is probably the best thing in the whole entire world because it is so amazing and satire and just hilarious. If I had to improve on something I tried putting it the text on the white of the flag instead of the red, in order to compare on and see the difference. I think it may create more contrast which could be a good thing but also could be a bad thing because it could be too distracting.