Land of the free and the scared

Columbine, Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech, national tragedies, resulting in a total of 71 deaths. These incidents are still making headlines as the memories of the victims are honored.  

But that’s only three of 1,857 school shootings since 1970 and 71 of 621 deaths caused by the use of guns on a school campuses. 

So far in 2021 there have been 205 incidents involving guns on school campuses, that is the most ever recorded in one year and there are still two months of school left this year.  

But no one is talking about it. 

Despite the growing rates of school violence on both college campuses and k-12 schools, I haven’t seen much in the news about it, most of the shootings barely made local news.  

Threats of shootings and bombings are happening to schools in the U.S. everyday even some close to home. 

But no one is talking about it.

South Dakota School of Mines evacuated Friday after threat was made that there were bombs placed in several of the buildings.  

But no one is talking about it. 

Almost everyone I know has had a threat of a shooter or bomb or had an incident occur while in high school or college. As a student the thought of being killed by a shooter or having a friend or sibling killed is always in the back of my mind.  

But no one is talking about it. 

Schools have evacuation plans, trainings for faculty and staff, even resident advisors (RA’s) have to go through mass shooting trainings. 

When you’re in a building or classroom discussions come up of what you would do if a shooting would happen right now.  

But no one is talking about it. 

Parents, grandparents, sibling and friends of over 600 students have grieved over those lost in school gun violence. 

So, let’s talk about it.  

Let’s make every school shooting, every threat a national issue. 

Let’s talk about when, where and how school shootings are happening.

Let’s talk about how 43% of the shooters were students attending the school and 19.9% are done by people who have no relation to the school. 

Let’s change how we handle fighting and bullying.  With 38% of school gun issues classified as an escalation of disputes, they could have been prevented. 

 Let’s talk more about children’s access to weapons. Even if this just decreases the amount of accidents in elementary schools, when young children bring a gun to show and tell. 

Let’s talk about how 36.9% of gunmen fled and then were apprehended and 26% of them fled and escaped. 

As students, sibling and future parents of children, we need to talk about school violence and not just when the death toll is high and not only when its young children.

We should be demanding change, so that future generations don’t have to worry about being shot while getting an education. So that school days don’t have to be spent on training students on how to run, hide and defend themselves. 

And just in case you haven’t heard them, here are just a few of the names of victims of school gun violence in 2021, Daylon Burnett, 15, Kayden Bauswell, 15, William Belamy, 18 and Aarron Wiggins, 26.