Imagine being scared to go to school, imagine being afraid of what the day might hold, imagine feeling unsafe in an educational environment, imagine having the fear you will never see your family again, this is what it is like in the mind of students in recent years because of the increase in school shootings.
Today, there is a significant increase in the rise of school shootings as gun violence and school shootings are becoming a common American epidemic. These create detrimental impacts on the students, in result a change needs to be made to control the access to guns, and how to keep students safe and protected from the increasing gun violence.
When a school shooting has occurred, the focus is always on the weapon and the number of deaths, then it instantly turns political, but nothing is ever done for those that had to endure that trauma, the ones that lived through it. An attempted or successful shooting of just one student at a school has ramifications far beyond those directly involved. The students and staff are likely to suffer traumatic stress symptoms, their whole behavior changes, and they go into a shutdown mindset, becoming anxious or depressed while having general concerns about their safety. Many may develop temporary mental impacts or others may conduct chronic psychiatric disorders.
The surge in school shootings causes everlasting serious mental impacts, like severe distress and profound effects on the students’ academic achievements, and their social and emotional growth. After a school shooting, the school’s environment and sense of clarity is immensely damaged. The most disturbing effect of school shootings is the lingering feeling of on-going danger. Students become afraid and lost in their own fears, which begins to impact their entire life, even the simplest things. Beyond the dead and wounded, the children who witness this type of violence remain locked behind closed doors, traumatized. These children must have direct access to mental health resources.
Outsiders who have never had a school shooting hit close to their hometown have a different view of thinking, they assume their school is safe, or their child will not be affected by any of this due to having access to resources, but this is not the case. There are even some students who developed a sense of frustration due to feeling like their school is supposed to be a place for learning not lockdowns, even though they are needed to keep students and staff safe. In reality, it happens where people least expect it.
The affects a school shooting are eternally damaging regardless of if it occurs in a community with high crime and violence or in a community that is historically safe and stable. This can result in conflict and fear for each family and impact relationships among community members including parents, the school, law enforcement, and local governments.
Sometimes the main focus of a school shooting is the criminal but not the damage they have caused with the endless trauma or distress that will carry on with the students, and the fear developing within their parents. The students who have been impacted may develop this feeling of isolation and lack of trust. Therefore, schools must make sure that their students have unlimited access to the help they need, so they can create a relationship with a specialist they trust, helping them cope with the trauma rather than having them develop mental health disorders.
The federal government does not track the data of school shootings, so the Washington Post has spent years tracking how many children within the United States have been exposed to gun violence since the Columbine High massacre of 1999.
The data they have collected shows that “there have been 417 school shootings since Columbine”. Guns in schools rose rapidly, with data collected from the post producing sufficient evidence that gun violence is still on the rise.
The K-12 School Shooting Data Base portrays information that is recorded to document the number of school shootings, to emphasize the gun violence on school campuses. All incidents provided in the graph are from 1966-Present.
According to the article, Protecting America’s Schools, “The analysis suggests that many of these tragedies could have been prevented, and supports the importance of schools establishing comprehensive targeted violence prevention programs as recommended by the Secret Service in Enhancing School Safety.” By limiting the exposure to gun violence within schools, threat assessment programs will help intervene to stop violent behavior and protect our schools.
By establishing threat assessment programs within schools, it will help keep guns out of schools. These programs help the schools identify those who are at risk of committing violence but resolve these incidents from occurring by getting the students the help they need. By enforcing these programs, they will work to identify threats, determine if students have any access to guns, but ensure that there are professionals available to provide students with mental health services. By instituting these threat assessment programs or enforcing different school safety programs it will be a critical part in the comprehensive school safety plans. Only 9 states have adopted this policy, we need the rest of the country too, because if we want to limit the increasing number of school shootings, we first must make a change within the schools.
With the continuously increasing number of school shootings there are ways to prevent guns within the school, these actions must be taken to enforce the protection of the students, educators, and staff members. Sources from everytown.org state that an estimated amount of 3 million children in the U.S are exposed to shootings per year, more than 3,500 children and teens are shot and killed while 15,000 more are shot resulted in injury.
It is sickening to know that within our country, firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens. Yet to this school gun violence continues to rise. Have you ever wondered how young kids and adolescents are getting access to guns? Well, it is because in the past years access to guns has become less restrictive, allowing many to get a hold of one leading to the increasing rise in school shootings. This has always been a problem but in more recent years it has become more problematic.
In 1968 the Gun Control act was passed, “This Legislation regulated interstate and foreign commerce in firearms, including importation, “prohibited persons”, and licensing provisions.”, but according to the “Assassinations and Gun Control” we are informed that, “Gun Control Act is passed and imposes stricter licensing and regulation on the firearms industry, establishes new categories of firearms offenses, and prohibits the sale of firearms and ammunition to felons and certain other prohibited persons.”
This act did provide restrictions on our access to guns, yet gun laws vary from state to state due to the state’s laws being mandated by the state government. Currently on a state level, 8 out of the 50 states require firearm registration for their weapons, 22 of the states enforce regulation known as deadly force laws.
Within Maryland, our government has established the following laws; Open and concealed carry of firearms is legal in Maryland only for those who have the “Wear/Carry Handgun Permit” (WCHP), but to obtain the WCHP, applicant must by 21 years old or 18 years old if for employment purposes. However, they must show good and substantial reason for the use of carrying a handgun.
Many may feel that making changes to gun laws goes against our second amendment which states that, we as citizens of the United States obtain the right to protect ourselves, with guns, if we feel it is necessary. But this is not necessarily true, if guns rules become more restrictive it will still allow many to obtain a firearm if they meet the required criteria and pass the firearm background check.
Gun laws are very controversial within the United States as many citizens feel that enforcing guns laws will impact their daily lives by eliminating their hunting and protection privileges. But the only thing that will change will be the safety of those within the home of the gun. According to nationwidechildren.org data shows that, “1 in 3 families with children have at least one gun in the house. It is estimated that there are more than 22 million children living in homes with guns”.
Due to the climbing number of school shootings, too many children are gaining access to guns. Over the recent years, the increase in firearms sales and gun violence has begun to spike due to more children/ adolescents gaining access to the weapon putting them as well as others at risk. To protect our generation, we will not be capable of banning all guns from the country, but we need to enforce the owners and parents that firearm weapons must be stored locked away, left unloaded and separate from ammunition. This may not magically solve the school shooting gun violence, but this should be an eye-opener to parents and gun owners so that they can make a change to restrict their firearms. Just by hiding them, tit could save a youths’ life.
The world has changed but not for the better when reflecting on the violence within in the world but specifically the rise in the result of school shootings. When a gun is present, damaging trauma is the outcome within many. Actions must be taken to protect the people; we must keep students safe and limit access to guns.
Schools are supposed to be a place for education and books, not a place for a war ground containing firearms. The irritable feeling knowing that Students do not feel comfortable in their own schools, parents are afraid to say bye to their children thinking it could be the last time they are going to say goodbye will be continuously haunting if gun laws go unchanged, if gun owners continue not to see an issue, and if mental health is not the primary focus.
I previously stated the mental state of students and what it is like walking into school every morning due to the fear of a school shooting happening in a hometown school, but just imagine if changes were made, and mental health was the focus… A student awakens to their alarm with a smile on their face, feeling the day would be great, then gives their parents a hug goodbye, heads for the school, the parents smiling. We all wish we weren’t surviving in fear, but truly living for the day given.
