Jake Paul Has an Idea to Stop School Shootings and It Involves Giving Students Bulletproof Shields

YouTuber Jake Paul has released a 22-minute video on the subject of school shootings.

He was inspired to produce the clip in the wake of an attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and staff members lost their lives.

As has been demonstrated in the weeks that have followed the 14 February shooting, young people are more than equipped to take on the challenge of campaigning for common sense gun laws (even if the burden shouldn’t have been put on their shoulders in the first place).

But we have our doubts about 21-year-old Jake Paul’s ability to campaign for anything that involves 'common sense'.

"I think the only thing I can do to help in this situation is go ground floor, talk to a bunch of people who were in the shooting, outside of the shooting, teachers of the school, the Parkland county commissioner and figure out what needs to be done," he says in the clip, titled "It’s Time to End School Shootings".

The Paul family is not exactly known for their sensitivity to tragedy, but at least it’s not Logan doing the visiting. And Jake’s pledge to “give that message to as many people as I possibly can,” is certainly admirable, given his reach on YouTube.

However, he can’t quite help but bring the focus back to himself, asking one survivor, "Why did you choose to feel comfortable to open up to me, specifically?"

Paul also interviews Florida senator Marco Rubio over Skype, and accepts Rubio’s assessment that changing laws isn’t the answer. Rather, in Rubio’s words, "The best thing to do here is to stop someone before they show up at the school and shoot it up." (You may remember Rubio was infamously owned at CNN's recent Town Hall on gun laws.)

"We don’t want to wait for hundreds of people in Washington DC to pass laws," Paul concludes, before offering his iron clad recommendations for schools.

Those recommendations include installing bulletproof windows, adding school resource officers, holding social media companies responsible for monitoring posts of students killing animals, supplying students with bulletproof shields that can fit in their backpacks, and making check-in points (as in, security checks at a school’s entrance) mandatory.

After receiving criticism online for putting the onus on students and schools themselves to exclusively protect themselves from further shootings, Paul took to Twitter to insist he believes “gun reform is an absolute must”, adding five further changes he’d like to see enacted by American legislators.

Gun Reform changes we need in my opinion.

1. be at least 21 to buy a gun
2. Go through a 6 month minimum course (similar to a drivers license course)
3. Professional Mental Heath evaluation
4. Ban Gun shows now!
5. 30 day wait period after purchase to receive firearm pic.twitter.com/pe7YXgLcR5

— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) March 12, 2018

Students across America are planning a mass-walkout on 14 March to petition Congress to ban assault weapons, insist on universal background checks before gun sales and pass a “gun violence restraining order law” that would give courts the power to disarm those who have displayed warnings signs of violent behaviour.

Photo: YouTube (Jake Paul)