School: is it Safe? Schools are supposed to be a safe environment for students to learn and thrive, not an environment of constant alertness and anxiousness. Families should not feel nervous or apprehensive to send their children to school because they are not sure of their safe return home. Because of how common school shootings are, these adjectives that I used in the previous sentences are familiar to many families across this country. A school shooter has one purpose and one purpose only: to shoot as many people as he/she can.
With the growing rate of suburban school shootings, it is the school security’s responsibility to keep students safe and out of harm’s way. School shootings are becoming more prevalent in today’s society because of loose gun control and suburban naivety towards gun violence. Years ago, guns in school was never heard of, but now it’s an issue. An issue that should have never came to fruition but is now difficult to put to an end. An issue that is traumatically changing the lives of thousands across this nation and millions around the world.
Children are living in fear and/or dying because of someone else’s horrific impulsive decision making. What is a school shooting? Why would someone want to bring harm to a learning environment? Who would do this to students? These questions went through my head as I analyzed this topic and I was in awe at the answers. Not only were they interesting but made me even more curious about the material. These are only a few of the questions that will be answered throughout this paper. But before we get into school shootings and gun violence, let’s learn more about how the gun came to be.
Guns have been a working progress since the mid 1300’s in Asia and Europe when the gun was just gunpowder. In 1380 hand guns were known all over Europe and then in the 1400s the matchlock gun appears. After hundreds of years of trial and error with locks, precision, and conveniency, we have the world’s scariest pieces of machinery that are sadly now being used in school for hurt not protection. Rosen stated there are “3. 8x; higher rate of suicides by a gun in the states with high versus low levels of gun ownership” (Rosen 2). The United States is one of the worse nations when it comes to gun safety and gun violence.
Rosen also states that, “Gun laws vary dramatically across the United States” (Rosen 2). Having inconsistent gun laws contributes to the horrible reality of gun violence and school shootings. For years I have always wanted a gun of my own and I have always wanted to go to the shooting range with my father so that I know how to use my gun. But my family never agreed to let me have a gun. Now that I think about it, I am so glad that my parents made that wise decision. They knew someone my age should not have nor is capable of owning a piece of machinery that could kill someone.
Sadly, not every parent or guardian is as wise as mine and children have access to guns 24/7 at home that could eventually make its way to school. Everytown for Gun Safety states “More than half of the kids obtained the gun at home likely because an adult did not store it locked and unloaded. ” (“Everytown for Gun Safety”). The incoherent thinking of a parent leaving their gun unlocked and loaded is mind boggling but that type of loose gun behavior is what subsidizes to the issue of gun violence and school shootings.
Younge reveals “Almost all thought that guns were too readily available… ” (Younge 14). With the availability of guns all over this nation, no wonder our country is labeled as one of the top ten countries in the world for mass shootings. Now that we learned a little more about guns, you are probably thinking; how does this tie into school shootings? Well gun violence plays a huge part in school shootings because it would not be called a shooting unless the shooter was using a gun. A lot of people ask, why would someone want to go into a school to kill students and teachers?
School is not just a pleasant learning environment. It should be but wistfully it is not. School is where students are not only trying to figure out who they are but trying to learn material that will help you tremendously later on in life. School is also where bullying happens! Bullying is the number one reason why school shootings happen. Indicators of School Crime and Safety states, “In 2013, about 22 percent of students ages 12-18 reported being bullied at school during the school year” (Zhang, Musu-Gillette, Oudekerk 5).
This statistic is not precisely correct because like sexual violence, people do not speak up about the issue. Millions of kids are bullied a year across the United States but everyone handles the torment a different way. Duplechain and Morris say that “Bullying and school shootings are directly linked to each other” (Duplechain and Morris 146). Bullying is what amplifies school shootings, it is the ammunition that triggers the school shooter to break. Duplechain and Morris also state that “School personnel too often accept that children get teased and bullied everyday.. Duplechain and Morris 146).
Most kids are being profusely bullied everyday and we don’t even know because they are quiet about what is happening to them. The kids that are quiet about being seriously bullied suffer from depression and even worse, suicide. If you are a kid who is being bullied and are like me, you told your parents right away. After I told my parents they told the principal and the whole situation was solved. But then there are those very small minut few individuals who take it a little too far. The school shooters.
Most of the time a school shooter suspect has been terribly teased and tormented for a very long time and has been holding his/her anger in. When the shooter comes to shoot up the school his/her targets are those people who bullied him all that time. Duplechain and Morris state, “In every school shooting, boys targeted girls who rejected them, boys who called them gay or otherwise belittled them and other students at the top of the hierarchy-white, wealthy, and athletic-and then shot down other students in the effort to reinstate their injured masculinity” (Duplechain and Morris).
Especially for young men, appearing masculine and strong is important, when that is derided everyday it really gets into the person being bullied skin. People, especially kids and adolescents, do not truly understand how much words can hurt someone unless they are the ones being hurt. I know from personal experience that just a few simple words can make you feel lonely or not wanted. That is how these school shooters feel. They have been holding in all of this anger and anxiety from their traumatic bullying experiences to the point where they do not care anymore about others or themselves.
Even words used in Native Son are degrading such as, “Throw that gun down, boy! “( Wright 267), or “All right, boy! “(Wright 267). Consistently belittling Bigger by calling him a boy is most definitely a form of bullying that was not only used in our history’s past towards a specific group of people, but is still being used today the same way towards everyone. In the novel the Bluest Eye, crude vocabulary was thrown around a great deal when speaking about others. The boorish language Claudia uses when talking about a group of individuals she says, “They are ugly.
They are weeds. ” (Morrison 50). No one wants to be called those mean names so why would a person do so. Because of our society’s way of thinking poorly of people when we ourselves are insecure, we created manipulating bullies that have no shame in tearing people down. Language is a beautiful thing that we can easily turn ugly. We live in a country where we have the freedom to say what we want and how we feel at any time. Why should we mess that up by bringing other people down.