When is enough, enough?
While we are not even two months into 2021, we can’t help but be horrified at some statistics that are coming out concerning gun violence. The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) is an excellent website with an extensive archive of gun violence incidents that get reported on in near-real-time data. GVA is able to provide gun violence incident reports that they compile from law enforcement, media, government, and commercial sources. These relationships enable GVA to provide up-to-date information for the public.
Emotions
A recent report from GVA has us at Protecting Our Students sad, confused, and angry. In the first 45 days of 2021, the nation has experienced over 2,200-gun deaths, more than 3,900-gun injuries, and lastly, approximately 3,000 suicides. These numbers are unsettlingly high. We need to do a lot better as a nation. We do not hear about other developed countries experiencing a gun epidemic. America is the only country dealing with this issue. We are failing at preventing gun violence. Other countries have stronger gun laws compared to ours. These stronger laws make it difficult for someone to gain access to a gun – that should not be allowed to have a gun – in the first place. We have become desensitized to hearing the news report on a mass shooting. Not too long ago, hearing about a shooting shocked us to the core. We would be angry, sad, heartbroken, confused, shocked, plus a plethora of other emotions. Today we still feel those emotions, but now they are accompanied by numbness and a feeling of unfortunate familiarity.
Innocent children
Innocent school children are suffering due to our gun epidemic. Children now routinely participate in active shooter drills in school. According to the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics, 96% of all schools in 2015 and 2016 conducted lockdown drills. While the exercises are meant to prepare students for a worst-case scenario, they also add more anxiety and stress to children that are already scared and anxious. It is not a matter of if there will be another school shooting; it is when. We now live in a society where companies make and sell bulletproof backpacks for children to wear to school, and instead of being horrified by that notion, we cannot help but think that it is a good idea. Let us not forget the bulletproof hoodies and jackets that came up during a recent Google search for children’s bulletproof items. The words children and bulletproof should not have to be in the same sentence.
Failures
We have failed to protect innocent children who need the most protection. Being a gun owner and not securely locking up our guns to prevent a child from accessing them, that is a failure! Witnessing a child exhibit warning signs and not doing anything, is a total failure! School administrators and staff who know of a child being bullied and simply ignoring it, that is a failure! These failures make for a deadly environment that no amount of drill practices, armed teachers, and lockdowns can save. It is time we unite and come together regardless of race, age, political background and stop failing our students. If not now, then when? We have enough innocent blood on our hands from our failures. Change must happen now.
