As the new year begins to kick in there has been a total of 18 instances of fire arms on school property in just two months. Throughout the United States, millions of parents are sending their children to school everyday. School is supposed to be a place that is safe, a place that people should be able to trust. Unfortunately, there have been so many incidents that when parents tell their children goodbye as they walk out of the door to go to school, there’s the fear of not knowing if this will be their last time walking through those doors.  

I strongly believe that it’s not guns that kill people, people kill people. Everyone has choices: they have the choice to retrieve the firearm, then the choice to take the firearm to a facility and finally they have the choice to pull the trigger. There are so many steps involved in committing a school shooting, each with a different cause, that I don’t believe that taking away the guns will take away the problem. There is a significant percentage of our country that consist of good, gun owning people who would only ever use their firearms for protection. We have made many things illegal that are harmful to people in order to protect the greater good, but people still find a way to break the law.

However, I do strongly believe that we need stronger gun control. We are making it too easy for the public to get a weapon, and there’s no need to own an assault-style weapon. Like Junior Justine Corda says, “I think at this point there are way too many guns already out there to ban them, and society isn’t going to change so they just need to make the laws more strict on purchasing a gun and maybe the person purchasing should have to go through mental tests to see if they are stable. And also maybe not sell automatic guns, if any gun would be safer it would be one that has to be reloaded after one shot.” We make it too easy for children to obtain firearms; you should not be able to buy a harmful weapon that can kill someone before you can legally buy a beer.

Also, another strong point was made by Sophomore Grace Culp:  “Also part of it has to be the parents’ fault. If they got their kid a gun or they didn’t have theirs in a secure place, they were part of the reason, too.” While families should have the right to own a firearm for protection, parents need to be more careful with who has access to the guns in their household and when.

The Stoneman Douglas shooting highlights this; the legal guardians of the shooter reported, “I thought I had the only key. And I had control over it.” That mistake cost the lives of many at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and it should be accounted for.

At the end of the day, until something gets done, schools needs to be safer and people need to step up to the plate and stop normalizing the issue of school shootings. They aren’t normal, and the many factors that lead to them need to be taken accounted for. Gun violence is a serious issue that anyone can help make a stand with. Whether it’s signing up for a petition, taking place in a walk out, or even just spreading the word, anything is helping.

Infographic by Sarah Maniscalco, Staff Writer