The Class of 2024 is counting down the days until they can finally choose where they want to spend the next 4 years. Making the enormous decision involves taking into consideration the school’s programs it contains if it is a good financial fit for you, and most of all if you feel at home. As of October 4th, 2023, at least 99 people have been killed in 12 mass shootings. The general public can either choose to ignore these catastrophic events taking place or figure out a way to combat these shootings for the greater good of our society. The question that you should ask yourself is , where do you stand in the fight for Generation Z?
It was a regular Wednesday in Lewiston, Maine, when Robert Card, a gunman, killed 18 people and wounded 13 at a bar and bowling alley on October 25th, 2023. Jade Pierce, a student at Bates University, said, “It was never like I knew it wasn’t going to happen,”. The sad but apparent truth is that most of the students who were stuck inside their dorm rooms were born a few years after the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado and were grade schoolers during one of the most devastating shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Have you ever thought about why we have lockdown drills? The reason that we have lockdown drills is because of these events that have left lives taken and parents wondering why their children never made it back home. Generation Z has passed down to the current generation practicing class lockdown drills for this particular reason.
Due to the lack of gun control in America, students in high schools have feared drastic repercussions of spending the next four years in a place that could potentially be the next crime scene. Ellie Dealy 24’, was asked if the recent school shootings affected her college decision-making. Dealy said, “Yes, now I do not want to go to school in Washington DC because I do not want to get bombed since the White House is right there”.Yet, college is inevitable for most students ,which made Dealy say, “—Schools in the United States have had so many shootings so I try not to think about it too much when going through the selection process.” Jasmine Perkins, 24’, was asked the same question and said, “ I had to really look at what locations were the colleges in and what was the recent news and bad things that happened around the campus———– I had to take in consideration of my safety—— now that there’s more college shootings than ever. My college process was longer than it needed to be because of all the research I had to do to see which location is the best fit”.
The question that pops up into the minds of many is that US lawmakers banned assault weapons in 1994. Why can’t they now? Bill Clinton was the president when the Assault Weapons ban was passed in 1994. From ABC News “The biggest of the various loopholes in the bill was that it only applied to the specified types of weapons and large-capacity magazines that were created after the bill became law, meaning that there was nothing illegal about owning or selling such a weapon or magazine that had been created before the law was signed.” The article continues stating that “The National Institute of Justice at the Department of Justice found that the number of gun crimes involving automatic weapons dropped by 17% in the six cities involved in the study during the ban”. The Assault Weapon Ban of 1994 effectively reduced mass shootings in school’s but did not terminate them all.
If the Assault Weapon Ban of 1994 did not end mass shootings in school’s, what hope is there for future generations?
