America’s unique tragedy of gun violence calls for updates to previous policy

Recently, we have been becoming far too familiar with school shootings. So much to the point where the headlines the next day are something that is completely less significant and important. According to The Washington Post, there were 46 school shootings in 2022. The most ever recorded in a year. That makes 377 school shootings since the infamous Columbine school shooting.

You may be asking yourself why this has continued to be a relevant problem, and the inability to make change in the gun buying process is where a lot of the problem is coming from, as stated by VCU News. They also stated how many of the recent school shooters have had a history of mental illness. If the government were to require background checks and deeper screenings for people who intend to buy a gun, they would be able to identify these things.  

There are also other ways to prevent school shootings, such as implementing metal detectors at entrances and parents locking up their guns more securely. 

What is going wrong with the world that we’re living in? As said in The Washington Post, more than 349,000 kids have experienced school shootings since 1999. Kids should not have to live in a world where they don’t feel safe coming to school every day. Things have not always been like this. It’s easy to forget that there was once a reality where school shootings were not as prevalent as they now are. 

But the reality is, things have gotten much worse. According to CNN, the United States has 57 times as many school shootings as the other major industrialized countries combined. To put that into perspective, since 2009, the United States has had 288 recorded school shootings. Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and the UK combined have had five school shootings over the same time period.

The world has changed, and we need to change with it. Gun laws and regulations should not be the same as they were 50 years ago when school shootings were much more of a rare occurrence. Until more restrictions and regulations are put into place regarding buying and owning a firearm, we cannot expect change to happen.