Letters to the Editor - March 28

Editor’s note: The following letters were submitted by students at House High School as part of a class project

Gun owners should meet standards

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution reads, “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Some states, such as California, require background checks for all firearm sales, including those between private individuals. This was stated by the California Gun Law.

Now in my opinion, I think that our people should have a right to own guns, but they should be required to have a background check before being able to purchase a gun.

I think that a good way that we can control guns without taking them away from the public would be to require individuals to have a gun license; therefore, having to teach individuals how to use a gun.

Individuals should also be checked for mental-health issues before being able to purchase a gun. This way of going about things could possibly give better protection to the people.

Ninety-five percent of U.S. gun owners believe that children should learn about gun safety. So, if we also teach children how to protect themselves with a gun and how to use it, this could help the gun problem as well.

In conclusion, maybe we should all consider that guns are not the problem, people are; therefore, we should act, instead of taking guns.

Ellie Aikman

House

Americans shouldn’t ignore Syrian deaths

I am a sophomore at House High School, and I was wanting to tell you about the Syria deaths.

I am really disappointed and sad about how many people are dying and why it’s still going on. There have been so many deaths going on, and I want to end this situation and make the world better.

From January 2017 to June 2017, 5,381 civilians were killed, according to iamsyria.org. Of these deaths, 1,159 were children, 742 were women.

I think that we need more people to contact the American leaders and try to get them to talk to the other leaders in Syria.

We need people all over to tweet our American leaders. Ask for help and post the death rates and so forth as much as possible.

Children are dying. We need to do something big.

I think that people should make a bigger deal about this. Imagine this is your own kid that got shot or blown up.

Trinity Cruz

Fort Sumner

Homework: A stress we can do without

One of the largest causes of stress in young students’ lives is homework. Students also struggle with a lack of social lives, since all of their time is spent on homework.

Students are more likely to have trouble understanding the next day’s lesson because they are lacking sleep if they have excess homework, as stated by Craig Canapari, a former Yale student.

A Stanford University study shows that 56 percent of students considered homework as a primary stressor.

Homework is a primary source of stress for students and reduces test scores, as shown in multiple studies. If the amounts and hours of homework were reduced, students would have more time to spend with family and friends and develop a social life.

You can talk to your school’s administration and try to find ways to make learning more fun and less time-consuming by working on homework in class so that students can get help from the teachers who assigned the lessons.

One of every five students suffers from rising levels of stress, anxiety and depression when assigned excess homework.

Also, 72 percent of parents claim that homework is one of the major causes of household stress, as stated in an Oxford University study.

Students’ lives have become greatly controlled by school and homework that has to be done. Students don’t have time for extracurricular activities because they have as many as two to four hours of homework per night. This harms students’ abilities to become better leaders in being involved in organizations. These organizations develop the leaders of the young world. Without students developing leadership, they cannot be responsible for running the economy after they graduate.

Dylan Reed

Melrose

Global warming needs our attention

Global warming is an important problem that we should not ignore; even though many people do not believe in it, it has been proven to exist and gradually is getting worse.

According to NASA Climate, the planet’s average temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century. Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.

If this continues, it may get worse and cause many problems; therefore, we should take action as soon as possible.

To help our planet, we should minimize our use of coal, fossil fuels, and transportation such as cars and trucks.

Other data from NASA show that most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. If we refuse to take action on global warming, then it may get to the point where we cannot help our planet, and it may cause even more species to become extinct.

For more information about climate change, visit

https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Alexis Smith

Taiban