Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff

High school students across the nation are walking out of classes unified in support of stronger federal and state gun laws in the United States of America. Student protests at state capitols and in Washington are occurring almost daily since the most recent mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida that claimed 17 lives.

It’s time for near-adult high school student to take a stand and make the adults listen from Los Angeles to Washington. So far it’s all talk and no action from federal and state government as the gun debate rages and everyone is watching as the 2018 mid-term elections are nine months down the road.

Nationally televised Town Hall meetings are being held with parents of dead children asking questions of their elected politicians and law enforcement officials. Their anger is boiling over.

President Donald Trump hosted a heartfelt ‘listening session’ Wednesday at the White House with survivors of the Florida high school shooting and with parents of deceased kids. Trump listened to some of the most horrible accounts of terror coming from teenagers who lost their friends, accounts of terror coming from teachers who lost their students and parents who sent their kids off to school and they took a bullet.

Despite all the heated talk a few things are becoming clear – America has had enough with the ongoing, never-ending problem of gun control verses dead children. Much stronger background checks, longer waiting periods, banning semi-automatic rifles including the AR-15, banning assault rifles, banning automatic-fire weapons is what’s on the drawing board for the U.S. Congress. No more Band-Aid solutions, no more kicking the can down the road. But the same old problem will not go away that of 400-million guns including 5-million assault rifles already in private hands in the USA.

Arming teachers is a scary subject but no scarier than an active shooter on campus. Some teachers would qualify to carry a concealed weapon, but anyone who thinks arming teachers in big numbers is a good idea should think again. A good idea could turn into a bad idea real fast. Let’s just say a big 17-year-old, 200-pound student takes a gun from the teacher, then shoots the teacher and other students and himself right there in class.

A better idea is to call out the U.S. National Guard Army of soldiers and place them in the schools in all 50 states backed up with federal U.S. Army troops and U.S. Marines and let the teachers teach.

There’s been no drop in the daily average of about 90-people-a-day dying from gun violence across America in big cities and small towns. The war on law enforcement officers just this year has claimed 15 policemen with families.

A subject that often comes up during the gun debate is what Australia did following a mass shooting in 1996 in which a semi-automatic rifle was used to kill 35 people and wound 18 others. Previous to this incident there were a reported 13 mass shootings – and since the passage of tight guns laws there have been no mass shootings in Australia.

Australia did several things including banning certain semi-automatic, self-loading rifles and shotguns along with stricter licensing and registration. Also, they held a mandatory gun buyback program for banned firearms in private hands. All in all Australia bought back 700,000 banned weapons, estimated to be about 20-percent of the total guns held by citizens. In 2002, they further restricted the caliber, barrel length and capacity for sport shooting handguns.

In their efforts to disarm their nation, Australia is experiencing record low violence. The increase in public awareness about guns and who should have them and who shouldn’t is part of why Australia’s gun laws are working. As a nation they all got fed up and fired up.

According to FactCheck.org, “Homicide in Australia has declined over the last 25 years. The current homicide incidence rate is the lowest on record in the past 25 years.” It’s hard to argue against this success.

For President Trump and the U.S. Congress — they have their work cut out for them. The powerful National Rifle Association is already bucking up on raising the minimum age to buy a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21 citing that to be a violation of constitutional rights for those aged 18 to 20.

Today there could be another mass shooting in America with more victims … more funerals.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.