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With the recent shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, gun control is back to being a hot topic of discussion among the government and media. These two incidents, happening within a week of each other, left the country questioning gun laws in America, as every shooting seems to. When I heard about these events, it got me thinking about gun violence in 2020. Pre-pandemic I was scared to go to school, worried that Nyack High School would be the next headline of the weekly school shooting report. One would think that being stuck inside, stripped of daily interactions and activities would have caused shooting incidents to decrease ten-folds in 2020, especially because we haven’t been hearing much about it in the news. This assumption would be false. 2020 had the highest rates of death by gun violence in 2 decades. 20,000 American lives were lost due to gun violence and lack of gun control and yet I hadn’t heard of a single one.
Learning this got me interested in what other news we missed in 2020 while we were so consumed by COVID and the election. I found a list of 5 important global events that we all missed in 2020.
Hong Kong Protests: Since 2019, Hong Kong has been protesting their oppression by the Chinese government. People are concerned with the oppressive nature of the Chinese government party and its ability to control Hong Kong residents, often who come to Hong Kong in search of freedom. This is a conflict that escalated last year, but was left out of many news outlets because of other newsworthy events in 2020.
Siberian Heat Wave: The hottest temperature ever (100 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded north of the Arctic circle in a town called Verkhoyansk, Russia, located in Siberia. This is concerning as it has caused the loss of ice due to rising global temperatures.
Finland's Female government: Finland began its historic rule of a team of 5 women, led by 35-year-old Sanna Marin. Marin was praised for preventing many COVID cases and deaths in Finland by taking action quickly and effectively.
SARS: The Nigerian agency called “Special Anti-Robbery Squad” is being protested after they killed a young man on video. Although the Nigerian government says these videos are fake, SARS has been accused of murder, torture, and harassment for many years. All of this came out after the US protests of George Floyd’s death.
Pangolins: Pangolins are the most trafficked animal on earth, and have been listed as endangered for years. There have been trading laws protecting these vulnerable animals since 2017, but they are still being widely smuggled throughout Africa and Asia. Research has suggested that the trading of Pangolins likely played a part in the spread of COVID-19. In June 2020, the Chinese government banned the use of Pangolins in Chinese medicine in hopes of protecting trafficked animals and preventing another pandemic from happening.
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