nothin Murphy’s, Micaela’s Messages Delivered | New Haven Independent

Murphy’s, Micaela’s Messages Delivered

Paul Bass Photo

Junior ROTC Battalion Commander Micaela Flores had a message for her senator. It turned out he had a message for her and her Hillhouse High School classmates as well — about how they have the power to force the U.S. to confront gun violence.

Micaela showed up early Wednesday morning for a scheduled school assembly with the senator, Chris Murphy. She came armed an envelope with Murphy’s name on it. The envelope contained an invitation for him to attend the ROTC’s military ball April 12.

Murphy came to Hillhouse to discuss a topic that has been debated recently in Micaela’s classes as well as in classrooms across the nation: How to rein in school shootings.

The debate has taken place with a nuanced urban twist at Hillhouse, said Micaela, who’s a senior bound next year for Southern Connecticut State University.

We want to help out” the suburban schools where the shootings seem to take place, she said. But people leave cities out of the discussion: While no one comes to shoot up Hillhouse, students at Hillhouse know all too many people who get shot outside school. For instance, Micaela played on the school softball team with a girl who had to quit after getting shot a third time.

In our neighborhoods,” she reasoned, some people need guns for protection.”

That said, ever since Newtown’s Sandy Hook massacre, Micaela has supported efforts at gun control. She couldn’t join friends who traveled to D.C. for last Saturday’s mass march, so she created signs for them to bring, reading Lives Over Guns” and What do you care about more — us? or the money you’re earning?” Her position: The government should conduct many more background checks of potential gun buyers, and it should ban assault rifles.

Murphy, a leading figure in the Capitol gun control debate, has been pressing those same specific points in legislation in the Senate (along with these proposals for specifically addressing school violence).

After settling in a chair inside Hillhouse’s auditorium, Micaela heard Murphy explain those positions to students in Hillhouse’s AP English literature, constitutional law, AP U.S. history, and seniors honors classes. They’ve been exploring the gun debate in a program run by Hillhouse library media specialist Kevin Staton, who organized Murphy’s visit.

But Murphy talked more about students and their power to effect change. He spoke about how he learned about that as a high-schooler in Wethersfield upset about the slow pace of renovations to the gym.

And he’s seeing it now in the way that high-schoolers have forced politicians to take gun control more seriously in the wake of last month’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (You can hear portions of his talk in the above video.)

On this issue especially, if you choose to speak up, if you choose to get involved in elections, if you choose to go talk to politcians and demand that they do something, you will have a bigger impact than I will,” Murphy told them.

I am a United States senator. I’m a pretty powerful person. But I believe you have more power than I do. I want you to know that. I’m here … to beg you to stand up in some way. Recognize the power that you have. You have power you may not recognize. Maybe you’re seeing that now, because of all the TV cameras that are here because of you.”

One student asked Murphy his view on President Trump’s call to arm schoolteachers.

Show of hands,” Murphy responded, before offering his position. How many people here think it’s a bad idea to arm teachers?” Micaela and pretty much everyone else in the room raised their arms.

You’re not going to feel safer if every classroom you walk into has a gun. It’s an idea that has no basis in reality. If you were safer in places with more guns, then the United States would be the safest country in the [industrialized] world, right? It’s not. It’s the least safe country in the world. Because we have more guns than other countries have,” Murphy argued, adding that accidental shootings from classrooms guns would far outweigh” other outcomes.

Micaela’s pal Nicole Jenkins asked Murphy how young people will be brought to justice for committing gun massacres if courts always deem them mentally ill. Some of these kids don’t have mental illness. Some of these kids are just super-angry and are isolated,” Murphy responded.

After the discussion, the kids swarmed toward Murphy. Nicole grabbed Micaela’s hand and played fullback, clearing a path to guide her friend to the goal.

Micaela made it and delivered the envelope, along with a spoken invitation to the event.

You don’t have to stay for the dance,” she assured him.

Murphy said he’s usually more likely to be able to attend a weekend event. Since this event is on a weekday, he’ll have to check his schedule to see if he’s in D.C., he told her.

Afterwards, as she celebrated the delivery with Nicole, Micaela said Murphy’s visit left her feeling vindicated.

She was born in Argentina and has since become a legal citizen, she said. Now she’s active in a statewide Dreamers” group advocating for undocumented kids to stay in the country. She has attended rallies in D.C. and in Hartford.

People are always telling us that we’re too young” to make a difference, she said. She took heart that her U.S. senator knows better.

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