Gun Violence, the shots heard around the world

323,000. That’s the number of children that have reported to the Washington Street Journal that they have experienced gun violence in schools. As of December 9th, 2022, the last school shooting was 46 days ago at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, Missouri. But why do I bring these up? Why do we live in a world in which children are threatened each day by gun violence? That was the question I planned to solve. 

The United States is much different than other countries of its caliber in the world, that being it is the only country to have more firearms than people. With such a surplus of firearms, it may appear at first that that may be the seed at which the problem grew. However, the roots run deeper than just the number of firearms. Junior Ben Biggs stated, “I’m all for people being able to defend themselves, but given that the US has a massive gun violence problem compared to other countries, maybe guns shouldn’t be our go-to weapon.” The root of the problem, as stated by Ben, might be the normality of guns in the US, not just the amount. 

Another reason why this issue might be affecting millions is the lack of psychological testing. Almost anybody can get a gun with the completion of a background check, which only checks for a previous criminal background. As this is a controversial topic, I feel this should be covered deeper in our government for its significance in everyday life. The problem with these background checks is that in younger children or teenagers, they can’t do as easily screen them. A horrifying statistic that backs this up is that the average age of a school shooter is only 16 years old. School Resource Officer Richardson stated “I believe we are in an unprecedented state right now as a country towards gun violence. I believe we are this way because of our gun laws and how people can gain access to them.  You look at other countries around the world and they don’t have these issues with gun violence because of their stance on it.  I believe we as a country need to come together and say enough is enough and find a solution to this problem.”

Along with this, lower-income neighborhoods have been a serious area of concern regarding school shootings, even in Iowa. East High School suffered a shooting on March 7th where 15-year-old Jose Lopez fatally died and 2 female students were also critically injured. East High School was only one of 11 shootings within a 3-state radius of Iowa. The purpose of my speaking about this incident is not to arouse fear but to raise awareness of the cause. If we do not stop the violent attacks on our youth, then these shootings will only multiply. 
For further information on the East High School Shooting, visit this article.