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FRI.| 4-12-24 | ENTERTAINMENT
Change needed after shooting
FRI.| 5-5-23 | OPINION
On March 27, the Covenant School, a Presbyterian private school in Nashville, Tennessee experienced a mass shooting. Three children, three staff members and the offender were killed.
School shootings have been a major issue in the United States, with an increase in the past few years. Schools should be a safe environment where kids can learn. You should not have to worry about your safety when you are in school.
People can carry a weapon into any school and nobody would know about it. School safety should be a priority, especially for high schools so that students can focus on their academics rather than whether they are safe or not. The fact that someone could bring a weapon to an elementary school is absolutely insane, especially if they have the motive to deliberately hurt small children.
Audrey Hale, the shooter, was receiving treatment for an emotional disorder. Hale, a former Covenant School student,
Graphic by Jordyn Godwin
bought at least seven weapons locally and lawfully. Police think the school itself was the target, however, they have not yet identified a reason. Hale sent her former classmate a message which said “planning on dying today” 20 minutes before the incident, the classmate said that they hadn’t been friends since they went to school together. I thought it was very strange of this woman to be contacting someone that they only knew from grade school.
President Biden suggested on March 28, that any future action on gun violence would be left to Congress, claiming that he had exhausted all executive actions. In the aftermath of this attack, he reiterated his call for Congress to pass an assault weapons ban.
To make schools a safer environment, schools could have security at the main doors. Another option is providing access to mental health providers so if they feel as though they want to harm themselves or others, they can get help. In June of 2022, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) into law. The BSCA made several changes to the mental health system, school safety programs and gun control legislation. This could help improve the safety of schools across the U.S. and is a great idea that should have been made a long time ago.
After years of failed attempts to pass gun safety reform legislation, this law finally broke the decades-long stalemate on gun violence prevention to put forth a plan that addresses the many aspects of this national crisis, with a particular emphasis on the youth mental health issues troubling the U.S.
The government should have done something about these issues a long time ago. The first reported school shooting was in 1999. 24 years later and our country has endured 376 school shootings with countless killed or wounded. In response to this, schools have started to use metal detectors, hiring police officers for enforcement and they are also becoming more aware of the dangers and are taking more precautionary measures. In my opinion, it is important that more schools start doing this to improve the safety of students and staff.
