Jasper Winterton
Feature/Video Editor
Firearms were the leading cause of death for children in 2020 and 2021, and according to Everytown research, over 120 people in the United States are killed with guns daily.
The prevalence of school shootings and mass shootings have evolved overtime.
According to the K-12 School Shooting database, 349 gun incidents occurred at school in 2023, compared to 15 within 2010. Almost all of the 2023 gun incidents took place in the United States, with seven of them occurring in Canada and one occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
With gun violence being such a prominent issue in the United States, the upcoming presidential election could impact it based on its outcome, due to the candidates’ different policies.
During the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, after being accused by Trump of trying to confiscate people’s guns, Harris stated that she is a gun owner and is not planning on taking anyone’s guns away. However, her stance on developing stricter gun laws still stands, and she and President Joe Biden have previously called on states to enact different systems to potentially help the problem, such as the red flag laws.
The Trace’s website states, “Under Harris’s leadership, the office has worked to enhance background checks for prospective gun buyers who are under 21.”
In comparison, Trump plans on taking a hands-off approach to gun violence and stated that gun laws don’t work. He also has aligned with the National Rifle Association.
Despite Trump’s claims, there is evidence to prove that gun laws work. According to Everytown research, there have been fewer fatal gun incidents in states where elected officials have passed gun safety laws. The website states, “If every state in our country had the gun death rates of our National Leaders, we could save 298,000 lives in the next decade.”
On Sept. 4, there was a shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, GA, where 14-year-old Colt Gray, student, shot and killed two teachers and two students with a semi automatic assault rifle his father previously gifted him. The shooting happened just over a month after the high school’s first day.
Recently there have been additional threats surfacing, some targeting schools in Missouri. On Sept. 17, police in St. Louis County, Missouri, arrested a 16-year-old boy who posted a video on social media that included him pointing a gun at the camera, with a high school tagged in it. He was later found near Ritenour high school with a loaded gun.
Junior Poppy Coalier said via text, “The (gun violence) statistics make me very uncomfortable. Every day, at least once or twice a day, I think about the possibilities of our school experiencing a school shooting.”
The wide accessibility people have to guns is a huge factor in gun violence. In Missouri, the rate of overall gun deaths increased 68% from 2013 to 2022, compared to a 36% increase nationwide. The rate of Missouri gun homicide increased by 114% within the same time span. Gun violence costs Missouri $17.6 billion each year, and of that $455.3 million is paid for by taxpayers. Missouri has the fifth highest rate of gun violence in the United States, and 85% of all homicides in Missouri involve a gun.
Coalier added that she “personally believe(s) that stricter gun laws and stricter school security systems would be helpful in preventing school shootings.”
The only way to make the country safer is to pass stricter gun laws and make background checks mandatory. America has the highest rate of gun violence because it has the most guns.
Jasper Winterton-Feature/Video EditorThis will be Jasper Winterton’s second year on ECHO staff. He made several contributions while taking journalism class his freshman year. |
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