Opinion: 18-year-olds to Chuck Edwards: We demand action on climate change, gun violence

As an 18-year-old, it feels as though the world is at your fingertips, and the future is bright, bold and new. Or, rather, as an 18-year-old, that is how the world should feel. Unfortunately, for many people my age, it feels as though life is slipping through our fingertips.

The impacts of gun violence and climate change are at the forefront of young people's minds. Though we did not create this mess, young people are held responsible for cleaning it up. With little power to actively reform legislation, our most powerful tool for change is our voice. It is necessary that those of older generations, especially those in positions of power, represent the voices of young people. Unfortunately, the confidence we seek in our elected representatives remains unfulfilled. On issues such as sensible gun control and climate change policies, Congressman Chuck Edwards appears not to be representing my generation at all.

When Edwards introduced his “Chat with Chuck” event in January, my school’s Environmental Club promptly scheduled a meeting. We began the meeting with the following question: “As a high schooler and soon to be college student, I am worried about my safety on campus. We believe that stricter background checks must be mandatory, the minimum age to purchase firearms must be raised, and nobody should have access to automatic or semi-automatic weapons. How do you plan to address the steep rise of gun violence in the United States?”

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To this question, Edwards essentially replied, “Nothing. We’re good. I will protect the rights of Americans to purchase guns. I am a firearms dealer myself, and I will not compromise with Democrats. Period.” Furthermore, Edwards argued that, at this time, background checks and regulations required to purchase firearms in the United States are sufficient. If current legislation is effective, how do we explain the staggering rise in preventable gun violence?

In 2022 alone, we had a total of 647 mass shootings in the United States and, according to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive, more than 6,000 children and teens were injured or killed in shootings, a record high. Only three months into the year, it looks like we could break that record. This is unacceptable.

On the topic of climate change, we asked Edwards: “How do you plan to increase the use of sustainable energy sources that do not cause environmental degradation and worsen the impacts of climate change?”

To this question, Edwards stumbled through a twisting explanation of how human energy sources have changed through the centuries, how “they” used to record 79.9 degrees as 79 degrees, so the rise in temperatures we see today could be data errors (they are not). He repeatedly stated that we’ve only seen a 1-degree temperature rise, anyway, so the Earth is not at a great risk.