On March 27, 2023, just after 10 AM, a heavily armed assailant marched on to a private Christian elementary school campus and shot three children and three adults to death.
The students of Covenant School had just started their full week of classes after their Easter break, when a brutal burst of gun violence ripped their lives away from them. Students who had not even celebrated their tenth birthday were killed by a shooter carrying two assault-style weapons and a handgun.
Mass gun violence and school shootings have been plaguing America for decades, and it’s time to acknowledge just how common it’s become.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 145 mass shootings in America in 2023. There have only been 116 days into the new year. EDweek states that of those mass shootings, nine of them were school shootings.
Similarly, in 2022, there were 647 mass shootings, states Axios. That’s almost two shootings for every day in the year. And according to the Washington Post, 42 of those were school shootings.
These statistics mark an unprecedented level of gun violence in both America and its schools, forcing the nation to start addressing this situation.
Mass shootings have taken a drastic rise within America in recent years, marking a phenomenon that has endangered the lives of both students and teachers alike. Despite previous attempts to stop it, these events have only been getting more and more frequent.
The Washington Post reports that in 2022, school shootings have reached a two-decade high, ever since they first became a reoccurring event in the late 90s and early 2000s.
This shows that the problem of gun violence and gun violence within teens specifically has only gotten worse. Despite school attempts to bring about mental health awareness and promote ideals of kindness and respect amongst its students, school shootings are still becoming common each and every year.
To put it in perspective, ABC7 Chicago reported on an example of the frequency of school shooters. They interviewed 21-year old Jacqueline Matthews, a survivor of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 (who now also survived the Michigan State University shooting just a few months ago).
Jacqueline’s words ring true about the state of school shootings today. “The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible… We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent” she said.
Becoming more aware of the mass shootings inflicting schools and communities across the world may help communities and the nation to overcome these tragedies and learn from past lessons and mistakes.
People can educate themselves on gun violence, and the main causes and factors behind it, reach out to local politicians to try and fight this issue, or raise money and awareness about the issue with different organizations.
Many people believe that gun violence has become a pervasive threat for far too long. They state that if this trend continues, gun violence will only get more common, and more lives will be endangered. These words, voiced by many people today, encourage a solution to this problem, and to ensure the safety of the people above all else.
