Travel Blog: 2nd Stop Washington DC, USA
I
drove to Washington DC (district of Colombia) with my rental car. Washington is the capital
of USA and the home of the president who lives in the White House.
When I drove into the city I saw the gigantic buildings and the world
famous skyline with the blinding lights. To my right I saw the
Washington monument surrounded by tourists.
I knew
long before I arrived to the youth conference that something was
happening in the town, on my way there I saw groups of people who was
walking the same way as I did. When I got closer I started to hear
the bussing sound of large numbers of people. Outside the door there
were security guards checking all of the participant with a metal
detector. When I opened the door and looked inside, there were a
gathering crowd everywhere I also saw grinning people. I sat down and
waited for my turn to speak to the audience. Meanwhile I got some
finger food with an incredible taste of seasoning and listened to the
other teenagers who spoke about their opinion about gun related
violence in the USA.
It was very interesting to hear youth from other countries talk about their sides of the case. But, then again it was my turn to speak for the people. Here is a little summary from my speaks: I am shocked to
see that everybody in the USA have access to guns. You can by guns
and bullets in Kmart-shops, you can steal guns from your father for
example. It is too easy to get hold of a weapon by stealing it or
buying it from the street. In our country we only use guns to kill
animals. In Norway people do not have access to guns in the same way
as the people here in this country. At home you have to be 21 years
old and you have to get a permit from the police and the weapon have
to be locked in a special cabinet.
Here
it seems like people feel more protected when they have a firearm.
People also have at least two locks on the doors in their homes. It
is sad too see how frightened ordinary family’s are. Should really
everybody have access to guns or not? It will always be different
views on that subject. If people had not been allowed to carry guns
here, people had become even more afraid.
Maybe
one way to go is to have a age limit and much more strict rules. It
would probably lead to less crime, violence and accident. Since one
of the things that triggers criminal acts is that here they already
have weapons everywhere. Also
the attitudes of the Americans have to be change when it comes to
regarding weapons. Sadly, the
rules have been there so long so it is not easy to change the system
over night. Because, it is not just to change the rules, but the
government has to adjust the system.
