Clarence Astudillo, iReport.cnn.com
Posted: March 18, 2013 | Muntinlupa City, Philippines
A number of today’s children all over the developed world are involved in gun violence. Automatic rifles are no longer utilized for military purposes but are already available to the public where access to children, adult, and mentally ill people who are suffering from depression, anxiety and autism are unavoidable.
This type of violence can be attributed to the unending manufacturing of real guns, toy guns, war video games, sporting paint guns, and even reality television shows where high powered automatic guns and tanks are highly commercialized to the public. Gun violence and drugs are like cancer living in the houses of our society. It destroys family, it destroys hope.
Shocking news about massacres were no longer new to us. In fact one of the latest gruesome event transpired in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, USA, where authorities said: “A man armed with two automatic pistols kills 20 children at an elementary school in a rampage that left 27 dead and one injured in this sub-urban town before he took his own life.” With these events, gun laws are again widely debated by government officials to private sectors, hoping to find a solution in order to reduce or eradicate this kind of violence.
For me, debating, voting to change laws concerning guns are not the only solution. If we are going back to review our history, many individuals has made their own mark by transforming groups in our society to a peaceful and sports loving community. The likes of James Naismith (inventor of basketball) and Nelson Mandela who says: “Sports has the power to change the world, it has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope where once there was only despair.
For these reasons, I would like to introduce my invention I called Throw Ball Shooter. This is a kind of sporting goods that offers a unique new basketball game that virtually anyone can play and enjoy. Its special features is an adaptive equipment enabling people with disabilities to participate in a variety of leisure and recreational sports activities. It is a kind of sporting good that can be therapeutic to those who are suffering from autism, mental illness, anxiety and depression and it can be utilized also by the blind and the handicapped. It helps regain or develop fulfilling recreational lifestyle. This I believed is the only kind of sporting equipment where people with disabilities can compete with the physically in tuned athlete.
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| Clarence demonstrating his TBS invention |
This type of violence can be attributed to the unending manufacturing of real guns, toy guns, war video games, sporting paint guns, and even reality television shows where high powered automatic guns and tanks are highly commercialized to the public. Gun violence and drugs are like cancer living in the houses of our society. It destroys family, it destroys hope.
Shocking news about massacres were no longer new to us. In fact one of the latest gruesome event transpired in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, USA, where authorities said: “A man armed with two automatic pistols kills 20 children at an elementary school in a rampage that left 27 dead and one injured in this sub-urban town before he took his own life.” With these events, gun laws are again widely debated by government officials to private sectors, hoping to find a solution in order to reduce or eradicate this kind of violence.
For me, debating, voting to change laws concerning guns are not the only solution. If we are going back to review our history, many individuals has made their own mark by transforming groups in our society to a peaceful and sports loving community. The likes of James Naismith (inventor of basketball) and Nelson Mandela who says: “Sports has the power to change the world, it has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope where once there was only despair.
Mandela used sports to create change by increasing participation in sports among African youth. Mandela’s words inspired me so much, I believed that he envisioned this during his incarceration for almost three decades looking for solutions to end violence and racial discrimination.
Mandela’s vision towards sports drives me to write even though I am not inclined to writing. It drives me to present my invention, my “magnum opus” that I crafted in prison for almost 18 years.
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| The invention's certificate isssued by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines |
The Throw Ball Shooter can be a replacement equipment for shooting instead of guns, it helps kids to divert from running to war video games, from playing with toy guns.
To conclude, my invention for me is a craze inducing product, it serves as a trend to increase sports participation. With these reasons, I believe I have contributed something that will help reduce gun violence.
Source:
Clarence Astudillo via CNN iReport
Photo credits:
Clarence Astudillo via e-mail
Source:
Clarence Astudillo via CNN iReport
Photo credits:
Clarence Astudillo via e-mail