We Will Not Wait For The Next School Shooting
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters/PBS News Hour.
By: Andrew Sun, Alexander Denza, Faith Cardillo (Ed.) and Tracy Osawe (Ed.)
January 24, 2024
Gun violence is an epidemic throughout schools and institutions in the United States. Over one hundred students have signed on to this op-ed as a symbol of solidarity in the face of such tragedy. Regardless of their zip code, students go to school scared of being the next victim of gun violence and we’ve had enough.
In today’s world our fellow students are forced to love a country that values guns over human lives.
Some of us hear the sound of “gunfire” when we watch fireworks on the Fourth of July or when we watch a drumline performance at a football game halftime show. However, all of us have heard the sirens of an active shooter drill. We have all been faced with the taunting fear that our campus “will be next”.
By painful necessity we have grown to become much more than simply students learning in a classroom. In fact, we have been stripped of every last remnant of our childhood innocence. The steady silence displayed by Congress is as deafening as the gunfire that robs us of our classmates. We will not wait for emotional trauma to affect all of us. Instead, we will respond together.
Our generation responds to mass shootings by bearing witness to the deaths of our classmates and subsequently standing in solidarity. We text each other our last thoughts. Then, we attend vigils and cry on each others’ shoulders. We convene in our classrooms, we congregate in our churches and we deliberate in our dining halls. We are staunch, stubborn and steadfast.
Our hearts bleed as a result of the American trend of gun violence. We remind ourselves that we love our country and therefore expect much better from it. We believe that our country possesses the capacity to love us back.
History has taught us that when injustice calls students to act, we balance the moral compass of this country. Students in the Civil Rights Movement shared their stories through protest. Specifically, they created the Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (“the SNCC”). The SNCC members organized Freedom Rides, sit-ins, marches and demanded freedom from racial violence. The SNCC’s activism is woven into American history.
Additionally, students across America organized teach-ins during the Vietnam War (“the War”). They made it their mission to expose the War’s calculated cruelties. Their success resulted in the country’s rediscovery of empathy. Today, the work of those students is also intertwined with American history.
On August 28, 2023, the students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) exchanged text messages during a mass shooting. The nation read those desperate messages that wounded our community. Subsequently, we organized support groups and rallies. We made our voices heard despite the fact that we were thrown out of the North Carolina General Assembly.
Today, we demand freedom from gun violence. Freedom from another Parkland, Sandy Hook, Michigan State University (MSU) or University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). Since the Columbine shooting over 360,000 students have experienced gun violence. We do not wish to be subjected to problems that we did not create.
In recent years the country watched students march against gun violence. On September 22, 2023, the White House established the National Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Our words do not end on this page. We shall channel these words into change.
We understand the gravity of our commitment. However, we are prepared to protect the quality of our lives. We will not grant politicians the liberty to gamble away our lives in exchange for National Rifle Association (NRA) funding. We do not need a permission slip to defend our freedom. Politicians will come to the realization that the demands of a unified coalition of parents, educators and communities cannot be denied. We dare politicians to look us in the eyes and tell us that they are too afraid to try.
Consultant: Mark Wolf, Esq.