The first recorded school shooting in the US was on July 26, 1764, more than a decade before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, when members of the Lenape tribe attacked a Pennsylvania school during Pontiac’s War. Hundreds of shootings have followed. Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, our nation has been notorious for gun violence in schools. Currently, in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attacks, students and families around the country are protesting gun violence and future shootings, and Florida lawmakers have approved a bill that imposes three-day-long waiting periods for adults 21 or older to purchase a gun. But are these actions enough?
According to CNN, just this year, there have been at least fourteen shootings, which averages to about 1.5 school shootings a week. The New York Times stated that some families have even resorted to sending children to school with bulletproof backpacks “stopping a .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, 9mm, .45 caliber hollow point ammunition and more.” Currently, all their parents—and America—can do is to hope that these children aren’t future victims of another shooting. However, since 1764, no action the government has taken has stuck, with temporary changes providing only temporary assurance. The same things happen every time: someone pulls the trigger, people pray for victims and those involved mourn the death of lost family members, and everyone else simply moves on.
In the wake of the Parkland attacks, President Trump, a defender of gun rights, has changed his viewpoint, claiming that he would put forward “safety proposals,” saying, “We’re fighting hard for you, and we will not stop.” What he is fighting for and what he isn’t stopping exactly are unclear, as nothing has been done, and he significantly softened his stance in the weeks after his shockingly pro-gun regulation statements.
Initially, Trump supported arming teachers and raising the legal age for purchasing guns. However, so far, according to The Washington Post, he has only planned to meet with leaders of the video game industry due to his belief that exposure to violent video games is one of the major causes of these shootings, despite the fact that no evidence supports this claim. This represents a major problem: to appease the NRA and a small percentage of Americans, instead of targeting the problem, the Trump administration and the Republican Party are seeking different, unscientific methods of restricting gun violence without actually getting rid of guns.
While in the past, lawmakers have simply avoided debating legislation about gun safety, the strong and continuing national response to the Parkland attacks has meant that state rather than federal legislators have had to propose solutions. Lawmakers in Florida did impose restrictions on the purchase of firearms, and proposed to provide teachers with firearms to protect the children from such weapons. However, it was clear that armed school personnel have been unable to prevent school shootings, and it is unclear whether laws that limit small segments of the population from purchasing assault weapons will prove effective in the future. This half-hearted attempt at appeasing both gun lobbyists and protesters leaves schoolchildren in a continued state of vulnerability, and thus fails to address the very source of the problem of armed attacks in school.
Sure, Florida passed a law that makes purchasing guns more difficult. Sure, millions of dollars will be used to improve school security. Sure, they can train and arm teachers to provide a stricter, more stressful environment for the “safety” of these kids. But what about the guns that have already been purchased? What about the guns under parents’ beds that children could easily access? What about the guns that will be given to school teachers? We are simply worsening the problem by creating more possibilities of violence—we are increasing the amount of firearms to fight against firearms. What we are doing now is not enough.