Eighteen. The exciting age where you become an adult, possibly move to a new city and start the amazing journey of college. 18. The number of deaths due to shootings on college campuses in 2015 alone. This number jumps if you look back two or three years. Why has gun violence become such a rising trend in the 2010s and why can’t anyone seem to stop it?
When you go to a large school with over 25,000 students, you generally believe you are safe walking to class. When you go to a community college with only 3,300 full-time students, you generally believe you are safe. But the safety factor has been stripped away from schools, big or small, because of gun violence over the past five years. I attend a large state university and as an out-of-state student, I felt safe walking to the quad or student center. However, just one year later, I feel anxious and somewhat scared about possibly hearing gunshots on campus. And what adds to this fear is that most of the administration is not talking about it.
According to the Huffington Post, campus shootings occur more now than in previous decades, even though most universities prohibit guns on campus. So why is gun violence even a problem? Probably because if someone even whispers the word “gun,” most people will shush them and tell them not to talk about subjects like that. Schools take a reactive stance on gun violence: they don’t do anything, gun violence occurs, and everyone is in a frenzy. Administrations need to do more than write a press release about their firearms policy.
Campus Safety Magazine took a survey and the results showed that “one in four campus police are not prepared to handle an active shooter.” College administrations and safety networks need to train, educate and initiate conversation.
It is so important to have an open discussion about gun violence on campuses. The more we talk, the more proactive we can be about ending the problem. We are students, not politicians. We are trying to feel safe again, not attempting to shut down the United States’ gun industry. We want security, not arguments. We don’t want to wait until it happens to us.
