Mass Shootings: A Preventable Tragedy
Photo by Katie Godowski from Pexels
Rosa Martinez
School shootings are something that have become commonplace for the United states. Students are used to having to practice ALICE drills as if they were fire drills. According to The Washington Post, there have been 399 school shootings since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. The most recent one was eighteen days ago.
On March 27, 2023, the Covenant School, a private Presbyterian school with 200 students ages ranging from 3 to 12 years old in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced something students and teachers are constantly fearing. This school shooting killed six people; three 9-year-olds and three adults. The shooter legally purchased seven firearms, including two assault-style firearms. “Red flag” laws, which are currently in effect in 20 states, are laws in which access to guns are temporarily removed from people who show signs of hurting other people or themselves. Tennessee does this differently: Police can take someone's firearm if a court considers the person mentally incompetent, if the individual is "judicially committed" to a mental institution, or if the person is placed under a conservatorship.
This was just one mass shooting of the 131 that have been tracked in the U.S. this year. Between the years 2009 and 2020, 1,363 people have been killed in the United States from mass shootings. More than 50 people are killed a day from guns in the United States. Regardless, this is not enough to encourage lawmakers to have gun reform. "I don't see any real role we could do other than mess things up," Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee said on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. "I don't think you're going to stop the gun violence. You've got to change people's hearts." Rep. Tim Burchett adds this about school shootings: "We're not gonna fix it."
Although many lawmakers’ excuses for lack of gun reform is that they don’t work, this is proved wrong when compared to other countries that have strict gun laws. The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, has 46 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns. Canada is also a large gun ownership country, with about thirty-five firearms per one hundred residents. In 1989 there was a mass shooting killing 14 people at a Montreal engineering school. Canada’s lawmakers responded to this immediately with substantial gun reform including a 28 day waiting period for purchases; more detailed background checks; mandatory safety training; bans or greater restriction on military-class firearms and ammunition; and bans on large-capacity magazines. Following Canada’s deadliest mass shooting in 2020, Prime minister Justin Trudeau banned “assault-style” firearms.
This shows how quick other countries’ law makers are to enforcing stricter gun laws after a mass shooting. It only took Canada three mass shootings before they banned assault-style firearms. The United States has now had more mass shootings than days in 2023. Instead of stricter gun laws, councils take action by expelling representatives of Tennessee who speak up about the dangers of gun control absence. Representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson led a protest to call for gun reform following the mass shooting in Tennessee that killed 6 people. Following their protest, many lawmakers saw their actions as “disrespectful” and showing “no remorse.” Tennessee Republicans successfully expelled Jones and Pearson, who are both Black, and spared Johnson, who is white, from expulsion.
Jones, trying to defend himself prior to the vote for expulsion, stated, “We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy.” President Joe Biden agrees that this vote was, “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.” Many believe this expulsion was a force trying to silence people who have voices and a platform. Expulsions do not happen often, and when they do it is generally a punishment for lawmakers accused of serious misconduct. For example, past expulsions have included Rep. Jeremy Durham over allegations of sexual contact with 22 women during his four years in office, Katrina Robinson who used $3,400 in federal grant money for her wedding instead of nursing school, and Rep. David Byrd who was accused of sexual misconduct.
It is greatly disturbing that the United States’ lawmakers and political figures refuse to speak out and take action for the lives that are lost daily from lack of gun laws. Other countries have taken large measures to make sure they can prevent death from guns as effectively as possible, like Japan where the only guns permitted are shotguns, airguns, and guns with specific research. This has resulted in less than one hundred deaths from gun violence in a year in a country of 125 million people. Enough of “thoughts and prayers”. It is time to take action.
As of publication, the last mass shooting was four days ago.
Sources
There have been 377 school shootings since Columbine - Washington Post
4 big questions about the Nashville school shooting : NPR
How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023? - BBC News
U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons | Council on Foreign Relations
Tennessee’s House expels 2 of 3 Democrats over guns protest | AP News
