According to statistical evidence gathered by Sandy Hook Promise, around 12 children die from gun violence everyday in America and 93% of school shooting cases were planned in advance. Moreover, around 20% of the firearm owners who have children confess that they have unlocked firearms at home(Azrael). These shocking data remind the public of the necessity to understand that the gun violence problem happens everyday in both higher or lower schools, threatening students’ lives.
Gun violence problems plague college campuses. One of the most deadly mass shooting cases in schools happened on April 16, 2007 in Virginia tech university. Seung-Hui Cho, a former student of Virginia Tech, killed 33 people on campus, including himself. Cho lived in South Korea when he was younger, and then moved to the United States with his family. He perceived the world differently than other people. According to Cho’s parents and psychiatrist, he was diagnosed with selective mutism and possible autism at a young age. He was extremely quiet in classes and did not establish any close bonds with any of his classmates or teachers. Once his teacher noticed Cho’s abnormal behaviors from the idolization of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, and to his school projects expressing his intentions to “repeat Columbine”. However, because of the negelection from the schools and the doctors later in his life, the catastrophic prediction became the truth. In Cho’s case, he was found to have mental issues at the beginning, yet what worsens the situation is the nonfeasance of those people around him. The 32 innocent lives might have been saved if any of Cho’s classmates, teachers, or psychiatrist realized the urgency of his situation and provided him support, or they recognized his behaviors as a threat to public safety and reported it to schools or police. Therefore, we all have the responsibility to pay attention to our surroundings and recognize others’ abnormal behaviors.
Besides college shooting cases, lower schools are also threatened by gun violence. On March 28, 2023, the Tennessee police department reported a mass shooting at a Christian school in Nashville. Contrary to what the public suspects, this mass shooting case took place in an elementary school instead of a college campus where school mass shootings normally happen. The shooter, Audrey Hale, a 28 years old alumna from the school, shot and killed three 9 year olds and three adults on the school campus. Later her parents admitted that Audrey legally purchased seven guns, and three of them were used on the day of the incident. Similar to Seung-Hui Cho in the previous case, Audrey Hale also appeared to have psychological issues and proposed her own versions of “Blueprint on destruction”, her journals that are not yet released due to the potential danger it could present to the public, on school shootings.
Comparing specifically Cho and Audrey’s gun violence cases, similarities arose from both cases. We can easily see that in both cases, the shooter, who were both former students of their target schools, both experienced some kind of psychological issues and have revealed their intention of performing a mass shooting a long time before the incident. Summarizing all former school shooting cases, the United States government published a booklet on “Protecting America’s Schools, A U.S Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence” for future references. According to the booklet, a majority of attackers showed signs of psychological, behavioral, or developmental issues and approximately 50% had an interest in violent topics. Moreover, most shooters were stressed by relationships with peers or significant others, and almost all had experienced bullying by other students. Gun violences is preventable, as long as we pay attention to the signs it’s showing us. (PSA)
In conclusion, in order to have self protection in front of gun violence, students should be able to identify potential gun violence around them through paying more attention to the surrounding and understanding perceptions of the shooters. However, for the purpose of preventing these gun violence cases from happening, institutes should take their responsibilities to protect the students and provide them with a safe and secure learning environment. Improvements such as setting up and training the teachers and the students with code red drills, installing bullet proof doors and windows if possible, and implementing a stricter security check in schools could significantly lower the risks of school shootings.
Sources:
Azrael, Deborah, and Matthew Miller. “Firearm Storage in US Households With Children Findings From the 2021 National Firearm Survey.” Jama Network, 22 Feb. 2022, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2789269.
Levenson, Eric, et al. “Nashville Private School Shooting Suspect Had Maps of Building and Scouted Possible Second Attack Location, Police Say.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 Mar. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/03/27/us/covenant-school-shooting-nashville-tennessee/index.html.
“Protecting America’s Schools - United States Secret Service.” United States Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 2019, www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/Protecting_Americas_Schools.pdf.
“Virginia Tech Shooting.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/massacre-at-virginia-tech-leaves-32-dead.
“17 Facts about Gun Violence and School Shootings.” Sandy Hook Promise, 27 Apr. 2023, www.sandyhookpromise.org/blog/gun-violence/facts-about-gun-violence-and-school-shootings/.
Written by Yusong Liang
Edited by Joyce Rizko
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