With the year coming to a close, many schools in the United States (U.S.) are going on winter break and will commence further in the following weeks. Reflecting on the year, there has been an overwhelming amount of school shootings. This vast amount is unparalleled in every country, and the U.S. has been leading this comparison for well over 6 years. Reported by CNN, from January 2009 to May 2018, there have been 288 school shootings in the U.S.–the leading country for school shootings–and Mexico and South Africa came in 2nd and 3rd place with 8 and 6 shootings, respectively. Despite being a highly developed country, this statistic keeps increasing in the U.S. Hazardously, there have been at least 83 school shootings in 2024 and this number will only keep growing as guns remain accessible.
School is supposed to feel like a child’s second home: somewhere they explore academic pursuits and make lifelong friends. Instead, they have become incredibly unsafe and make it incredibly difficult for kids to thrive. Being one of three countries in the world where gun laws are protected in the Constitution, the United States has lenient rules that ease the accessibility of guns. In-turn, this gives people a greater ability to gain access to guns and hurt others. There are numerous ways guns are obtained: over 40% of prisoners who possessed a firearm received it off the street or from an underground market, 25% received it from a family member or as a gift, and 6% had stolen it. Despite not all guns being bought without malicious intent, they can get turned into a brutal way people kill. Hence, the Senate should prioritize proposing legislation that reduces gun abuse and availability. Most recently, this was promoted in New York where legislatures passed legislation where there would be a gain in funding for anti-violence education, which would place restrictions on guns to decrease the frequency of shootings. With gun control being one of the most polarizing issues in the U.S., there is immense division and attempts to persuade officials in power to go with different sides.
With different lobby groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) trying to convince senators and representatives to decrease restraints, while others like the Moms Demand Action act for stronger gun laws, bribery vastly affects the outcome when different bills are getting passed. That said, it is integral that legislatures decide for the well-being of the people and not from the money.
As gun laws remain uncontrolled, the proportion of guns-to-people increases. More than 494 million firearms have been produced since 1899 which is a higher amount than the amount of people in the U.S. This dilemma focuses on the culture of mass producing and selling guns with little regulation on who is purchasing them or what the cause is.
Though the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution protects people’s rights to own a firearm and bare arms, it also introduces a factor that takes away other people’s security. To decrease the amount of school shootings in the coming years, it is key to think about limiting current gun laws and how to reduce the influx of illegal gun purchases.
Written by Michael Shohat
