Imagine, enjoying a conversation with friends in math class and suddenly, you hear the words, “Intruder in the building! We are in lockdown!”
It’s 25 years since Colorado’s 1999 Columbine school shooting and we are still debating gun laws, background checks, gun shows, school safety procedures, and emergency drills.
Yet are we any better off?
Guns and gun regulations are a main topic for the upcoming election. Guns have played an influential part in the security and safety of free education.
According to CNN, there have been 568 school shootings in the last ten years, since 2014. The year with the most shootings was 2023 with 82 school shootings alone.
Democrats and Republicans have each taken their own stance on gun violence. Republicans want to let teachers carry firearms in school. Democrats are pushing gun regulations.
After the Uvalde school shooting in Texas, Republican leaders suggested the idea of teachers carrying firearms.
Callum Bross, 27, said, “If there was training for teachers to learn how to correctly use a gun it would be important, but the students could get a hold of it.”
However, Democrats have reiterated they want more gun regulations. Republicans have viewed it as an attack on the Second Amendment.
In the presidential debate, Kamala Harris addressed the concern of losing Second Amendment rights proclaiming, “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”
Schools prepare for shootings by having lockdown drills several times throughout the year. Recently, Stroudsburg acquired night locks that connect the door to the ground so classroom doors can’t be forced open by an intruder.
Officer Rodriguez said, “We prepare a couple of times a year and we have training. We should have the students train and have assemblies and just keep everything locked down… be aware.”
Rachel’s Challenge, an organization founded by Rachel Scott’s parents after she died in the Columbine shooting, is still battling school violence and bullying, 25 years later.
What will it take to end senseless shootings and school violence? More laws? Less guns? Gun-toting teachers?