Dear Editor,

The amount of times mass shootings have occurred and many students or staff have been threatened by shootings is very disturbing. Gun violence has been affecting the lives of people and it can have a negative impact on people’s mental health. We hear a lot of stories about shootings every day on social media and sometimes they can be random or targeted. A mass shooting that occurred recently in Oakland at Rudsdale Newcomer high school which left six people injured, two of the victims are students, one is a counselor, another is a security guard, and two others are described as “workers at the school”, according to the Oakland police. Gun violence in schools could be preventable in many ways such as creating a safe and positive environment or having Access Control Measures that make sure that shooters can not have easy access to schools. Some schools have had safety measures that have been in fact harmful to students such as arming teachers and this affected their education. This could also affect the teacher in a lot of ways. It is very hard for a teacher to be expected to take special gun use training and act as both law enforcement and psychologist in their classroom.

Since 2013 there were at least 1047 schools that have experienced gun violence which resulted in 342 deaths and 737 injuries. The worst time for this violence has been the 2021-2022 school year . “In 2022 alone, there have been 27 school shootings,” said Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association.” And according to the Giffords Law Center only 13 states have laws mandating safe storage, and only 10 states limit gun possessions to people 21 and older. 

I wanted to write about this because it is a huge issue in the United States. As a student, thinking about this makes me stressed, as a couple of days ago we heard about the Michigan State University mass shooting. Gun violence can make a student’s journey very dangerous and it will make it difficult for students to focus on their education. After all of these incidents that have occurred, I think it’s time to change some laws and make sure that not anyone can purchase a gun. Schools should safeguard students, have crisis response teams in schools, promote awareness of secure gun storage, have clear emergency plans for students, we can also add metal detectors specially locked doors, and closed campuses. This issue has been discussed a lot but it keeps on happening every day.

Serin Kullab, DVC student