An 11-year-old girl from Orlando is the latest young voice to speak out in favor of gun control in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Kaia James from Orlando is not yet old enough to vote. She’s not even a teenager. But she already has big plans for when she turns 18 and can cast her first ballot.
Writing in an essay for Parents.com, the outspoken tween said she intends to do everything she can to oust the lawmakers who refuse to ‘keep me safe’ and pass gun control legislation, because she is tired of the government not listening.
Childhood today: Kaia James from Orlando wrote an essay about gun violence in which she slams adults for not doing enough to protect kids
Scary time: ‘For the past two years, it seems everywhere I turn gun violence is a nightmare I can’t escape from,’ she said
Kaia got candid about her fears for her safety in the essay, titled ‘Is It Really My Job, as an 11-Year-Old Kid, to Save Myself From Gun Violence?’
Even at 11, she has been touched by gun violence, both in personal ways and from afar. Last year, she said, her mom was attacked by two men wielding guns in her own backyard. They held a gun to her head while they robbed her.
Kaia also lives just a few miles from Pulse Nightclub, which she drives by regularly with her family, and a few hours away from Parkland, Florida, which suffered a school shooting last week.
All of this has her suffering from anxiety; she doesn’t sleep well and is worried about being able to protect herself.
Since the shooting last week, she has noticed that her teacher locks the classroom door when the students are all in side. And for year, she’s gone through lockdown drills, in which students hide under desks and stay quiet.
‘For the past two years, it seems everywhere I turn gun violence is a nightmare I can’t escape from, no matter how hard the adults in my life try to hide it from me,’ she wrote.
‘But can you really ever prepare for something like that? And is it really our job, as kids, to save ourselves from gun violence in our homes and schools?
Hero: She said she looks up to Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who gave a rousing speech at a rally last weekend
Voice: She said kids — like the ones who staged a lie-in on February 19 — are standing up now
Stuck: Kaia said kids would love to not have to speak out and spend time playing instead, but they no longer feel like they can
‘Adults seem to think so,’ she went on. ‘Just this week, the people who make the laws here in Florida wouldn’t even have a discussion on gun control. They voted no to a debate.
‘How can they ignore such a big threat to our society? To their children?! In making that decision, they made it crystal clear that it is up to us kids to save ourselves, whether lawmakers want to admit it or not.’
What politicians fail to realize, according to Kaia, is that these kids are ready to fight for themselves.
While watching kids who survived at Parkland speaking at a rally on TV last week, Kaia was particularly struck by Emma Gonzalez, calling the 17-year-old a hero.
‘She led a crowd of people chanting, “We call BS!”‘ wrote Kaia. ‘I’m not even allowed to use that word, but I completely agree and I’m here to stand with her.’
Kaia shrugs off criticism that the kids speaking out are too young and ‘don’t know what we’re talking about’. To those who say kids shouldn’t be involved in such things, but should instead be playing with friends and doing homework, she has a message.
Exhausting: ‘I am tired of adults telling kids like me to be quiet about what is happening to us and our friends in this country,’ she said
‘Well, we would love to do that — and that’s why we’re speaking out!’ she wrote. ‘But when the adults and leaders in this country are too afraid, too divided, or too selfish to talk about smart ways to protect us and keep us safe someplace as basic as our schools, you leave us with no choice but to fight for ourselves.’
She finds adults reiterating calls for drills and other measures beside gun control frustrating, particularly since they currently have the power to vote — and she doesn’t.
But while there are still seven years left until she can cast a ballet, she intends to remember this feeling. She said she won’t forget the names of the politicians who ‘wouldn’t vote to keep me safe,’ and she will use her vote to get rid of them.
Until then, she is speaking out.
‘Maybe one day I won’t have to shout and the people in our government will just listen, but I am tired of adults telling kids like me to be quiet about what is happening to us and our friends in this country. They’ve left us with no choice,’ she wrote.
‘If we’re old enough to be expected to learn how to survive a mass shooting, then we’re old enough to have an opinion on how to stop them from happening. When it comes to my own life, I think I deserve a say. All kids do.’