How do we reduce school shootings? 

        Over the years school shootings in America have increased, and somehow normalized. It’s almost once a week that we hear about another school shooting in another state, with even bigger casualties than before. That one child whom they raised with so much hope, and wistfulness is now gone because of careless money and power-hungry politicians as well as people who don’t know how to deal with their emotions. It’s heartbreaking, terrifying and devastating for the families that have to deal with fatalities. I feel for those families. Just a few years ago, a kid wrote that he would shoot everyone in our school on his desk. Someone found out and reported it the day of. Our school was on a lockdown for the whole day, and the school yard was surrounded by police officers. Metal detectors in every entrance. Throughout the day, no lesson was taught, games and music were played to ignore the fear, stress, and devastation that we all felt in that room. Students texted their parents and friends expressing how much they love them, and parents showed up to the school yard in panic. There were two teachers in the room, with counterbalanced emotions. One was concerned with making the class fun and worth it if it’s the last time while the other teacher could not hold back tears, and anger. This raises the question, are schools’ safe places for us to learn? How many more children who could’ve had a bright future have to die? It’s absolutely necessary that we push our leaders to enact strict laws against having easy access to dangerous weapons and encourage help for and normalize mental health issues in order to prevent and decrease school shootings. 

        There have been far too many shootings in schools, which are supposed to be safe places for students, and we cannot stand by and let it happen again and again. We must put pressure on our elected representatives to fight for our protections and implement tough regulations limiting the acquisition of firearms, as well as to develop effective strategies for dealing with the pre- and post-shooting trauma that students, staff and others experience. Tre Johnson is a graduate from the University of Maryland, born and raised in New Jersey, and currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Johnson is a career educator and freelance writer of race, politics and culture. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vox, The New York Times, Slate, Vanity Fair, The Grio and other outlets. In One of many of his articles, Tre Johnson critiques the music video, “This is America” by Donald Glover. Tre Johnson, In his article “Donald Glover’s This is America is a nightmare we can’t afford to look away from”, claims that African Americans face gun violence every day, and they’re always afraid for their lives, and how gun violence became so normalized that we consume it as a form of entertainment. Johnson supports his claim by describing each scene in the music video, and what it translates to in the real world. His purpose is to make readers aware of the cruel reality of racism violence in America in order to urge the audience to not get distracted by the media and direct their attention towards the broken system in which innocent black lives are lost due to violence. He established an analytical, hurt, and formal tone with his audience of racially- mixed, and critical interprets of the music video, “This is America”. In “This is America”, cars are set ablaze, a man drops to his apparent death from a balcony, and Glover mercilessly guns down a joyful church choir. The children dance unfazed all the while, each time bearing a different type of witness to what’s happening. A child is the one to handle Glover’s weapon after each shooting…” (Johnson 4). This evidence demonstrates that a guy can be slain at any time of day and have his body dumped from a balcony as if it were an object for public display. Additionally, you risk being shot if the shooter believes you to be a witness. The shooting in the children’s church choir demonstrates how frequently children are exposed to gun violence. It makes no difference whether you’re a happy child walking home or a person peacefully engaging in religious activity. Over the years, there have also been a lot of hate crimes committed against individuals because of their religion. Additionally, kids are bewildered and unsure of how to feel as all this violence is taking place around them. These kids are exposed to gun attacks through the media and see them firsthand in places like schools, churches, and even the streets. A child has a very difficult time comprehending such violence, and as a result, they are left with overwhelming emotions that cause them to become paranoid for the rest of their lives. This music video clearly captures how seeing shootings and hearing about it has become so normal for us. It highlights the need for tight legislation prohibiting the possession of military weapons because if those people were denied convenient access to weapons, countless lives would be saved. Things like gun violence wouldn’t be accepted as normal and kids would not experience it frequently. And if our politicians are concerned about upholding the second amendment, which was originally intended to defend the states and did not apply to the general public, they should also be concerned about the mental health of these kids. and give them free access to resources for mental health. We shouldn’t have to attend to school, church, parks, and other places with a nagging anxiety maybe we’ll suddenly be shot, and once we witness it, we live with terror and become stuffed with poisonous emotions. It’s not fair that we don’t feel safe in places we should feel safe, it’s not fair that so many innocent lives are being lost, it’s not fair that we face depression, and grief because of gun violence. It’s not fair, and we want to demand justice. 

        In order to decrease the persisting mass shootings at schools, and in general public and private spaces, we must enact strict laws to acquire dangerous weapons, and also advocate for mental health resources to help children deal with their problems pre or post traumatic events, because it could make them act out of character. On the issue of school shootings, American educational research believes that many of the school safety measurements that we have in place are ineffective, and that we need to develop crisis response to mitigate such horrifying events from taking place. Glenn Thrush says that majority of the criminals/attackers obtained their weapons by legal means reflects the profound inadequacy of local, state and federal statutes to detect or deter mass shooters. “One of the most surprising results of the conference was that the FBI’s experts in criminal profiling concluded that profiling was not an appropriate method for preventing school shootings. There was unequivocal agreement that no single set of characteristics defined would-be student attackers with adequate specificity to be of practical value. They noted that “trying to draw up a catalog or checklist of warning signs to detect a potential school shooter can be shortsighted, even dangerous.” (Borum 23). This finding shows that, despite the fact that schools experience acts of violence from both students and outside criminals, it is ineffective for schools to base their efforts on FBI experts in preventing school shootings. Simply comparing someone’s actions to a checklist is insufficient and might even be dangerous. For example, you become aware of the symptoms of a mental health problem and begin diagnosing yourself and behaving in that way despite never having received a psychological diagnosis for it, the same thing happens with normal kids. A checklist could transform innocent kids into troublemakers. However, most people who have attacked someone in a school setting have given a warning beforehand. They either provide hints to their peers or demonstrate through their actions that they are having issues, whether it is bullying at school or troubles at home with their families. In order to avoid dealing with post-violence trauma, it is crucial to adopt efficient strategies of spotting a violence crime before it even occurs. “From 1966 to 2019, 77 percent of shooters obtained the weapons they used in their crimes through legal purchases…” (Thrush 3). The majority of shooters, as seen by the above data, obtained their guns legally. The fact that there aren’t enough rules and procedures in place to stop violence speaks volume about the system under which we live in America. There aren’t many hoops to jump through to get a gun; the procedure is straightforward. Every time there is a school shooting, people use the media to call on our politicians to take action. To pacify the public, politicians take ineffective measures. It’s a never-ending loop that takes innocent lives in exchange for no gain. These agreements demonstrate that we lack sufficient research and efficient techniques to lessen the devastating issues that arise every day. We must fund research to learn ways to help students and adolescents with the problems that caused them to commit acts of violence in the first place. Instead of resolving their concerns by endangering children’s lives, particularly in an educational setting, there are so many other things these kids and adolescents could be doing. Why not provide folks with free resources and opportunity instead of easy access to firearms? Why is there a need for weapons when we have police? 

        In the final analysis, we have not been able to keep up with school shootings this year. Because it has happened numerous times in different states or different schools within the same state. It’s beyond comprehension how someone could shoot children on school grounds. We cannot stand by and watch innocent families suffer for the rest of their lives. To reduce school shootings, we must implement actual safety measures, not safety restrictions that accomplish nothing but shut people down. Offering mental health resources and aid to students and adolescents. And make gun ownership more difficult; there are better methods to protect oneself without using guns.

Work cited

Borum, Randy, et al. “What Can Be Done About School Shootings? A Review of the Evidence.” Educational Researcher, vol. 39, no. 1, 2010, pp. 27–37. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27764551. Accessed 1 Dec. 2022.

Johnson, Tre. “Donald Glover’s ‘This Is America’ Is a Nightmare We Can’t Look Away From.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/donald-glovers-this-is-america-is-a-nightmare-we-cant-afford-to-look-away-from-630177/. 

Thrush, Glenn. “What Do Most Mass Shooters Have in Common? They Bought Their Guns Legally.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 May 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/us/politics/legal-gun-purchase-mass-shooting.html.