Every student should feel safe to learn at school, but the sad reality of school shootings and violence has some students feeling scared. Gun-related violence in schools is a pervasive issue and has greatly increased in recent years, and more must be done to stop it.
From Columbine to Sandy Hook, and most recently Oxford, Michigan, innocent and vibrant lives are being claimed by senseless acts of gun violence. I asked a classmate if she felt safe at our school, and she told me that “with a recent shooting it's always a possibility of that happening at our own school because you never know what is going to happen that day. Plus, it's even more scary when people make jokes about it.” There have been a lot of copycat threats after the Oxford shooting. The jokes students are playing are shutting schools down for safety. For example, more than 100 schools in Michigan canceled classes Friday.
The National Center for Education Statistics says in 2019, about 5 percent of students ages 12–18 reported that they had been afraid of attack or harm at school during the school year. Just recently at our school, we practiced a lockdown drill. Some of these drills involve teaching children and adults how to barricade themselves in classrooms and hide from an armed and violent intruder. Very Well Family says drills should be clear, realistic, and explained at their level so that children aren't simply going through the motions, but understand why certain procedures and actions are in place. It's the job of parents, teachers, school administrators, and us as classmates to keep each other safe, physically and emotionally.
A big solution to solving school shootings is regulation of gun laws. Our government could learn from other countries like Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom. Japan puts its citizens through a rigorous set of tests, which includes a mandatory all-day class. From there, they must take a written test, have a 95 percent accuracy on a shooting-range test, a mental health evaluation and a background check. If that seems like a lot, Japanese citizens must then retake the class and the exam every three years. According to Koch, an American privately-held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, a student living in the United States, in comparison to the Scandinavian countries of Finland or Sweden, is 13 times more likely to be killed in a gun homicide.
This issue has impacted thousands of lives and needs to be dealt with. When will it stop? We need a change, and it has to start from the top. Humanity is here to care for the Earth bestowed upon us. I see no better way to care for the world than to protect the lives of the innocent and take action where it must be taken.
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