RAIDER REVIEW 2023 Staff – Voices: School Shootings (Again)

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It was a Tuesday, so the United States was due for a school shooting, but the murders of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX were a cruel wake up for American schools still groggy from a covid-induced slumber. Frustration, fear, and indifference among countless other feelings proliferate the minds of students and staff members across the country as politicians and other leaders limply continue their infinite inaction in the face of infinite tragedy.

Uvalde wasn’t the first school shooting and will ultimately become a footnote in a list that grows by the hundreds each year, but gun violence is plaguing our community as well. Outside of schools, gun violence has ripped through our Aurora community this past year as well. Gun crimes are up 73% in Aurora this year with 19 murders marking almost double from this time a year ago. Denver’s 39 gun deaths is on pace to be the bloodiest year in the city’s history. Nothing is changing unless it’s for the worse.


On May 24, 2022, one of America’s deadliest school shootings occured at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and it has stunned the nation. With the death of 19 innocent children, people are really starting to question what this country is doing with its lack of gun control. The question is why are they just figuring this out? For the past two decades, firearms have become America’s top contributor to the death of young children and teenagers. No child should ever be concerned about their life at stake when they walk through the doors of their school. Having to see kids in Pre-K practicing hiding in a closet in case there was danger on campus has got to be one of the most heartbreaking things that a person can witness. This incident that occured in Texas should NOT be the first time that the conversation of universal background checks should be brought up. Instead of sending “blessings and prayers”, people should be thinking of solutions to make sure no parent has to get a call about an unsafe campus ever again! (Yebella, 16)


With 27 school shootings that happened in 2022 alone, people wonder how to get this major issue to a close. To come up with a solution, people tend to look at the cause. However, the causes of school shootings vary from bullying, to abusive households. It can be hard to pinpoint and stop the cause of school shootings, when the causes can happen behind closed doors, or somewhere when people are oblivious to it. Even with organizations like “No Place for Hate” to stop bullying, it still doesn’t stop every cause of school shootings. How can we minimize the amount of school shootings when the causes are big issues in itself? (Hayley, 16)


Mass shootings in America are at an all time high. It is despicable that people would take it as far as targeting schools, a place of education. Shootings in America are a sad recurrence and they don’t seem to be stopping. This is a blatant clear sign that something needs to be done. When a school shooting occurs people mourn, grive, talk about gun reform, then nothing gets done, it’s an ongoing cycle. One solution to stop school shootings is making the legal age of gun ownership higher. Most of the shooters that we see targeting schools are young people. (Myles, 16)


A shooting happens, we mourn over the losses of life. It’s a tragedy, but a tragedy we have sadly become desensitized to. Then we petition for change pushing for gun control laws. We take it to the people in power, politicians. They argue about the laws and shootings for a few days giving the facade they care, and then they stop. Nothing changes the vicious cycle that never seems to end. Especially when just this year, there have been 213 mass shootings, 27 of them being school shootings. Kids and staff aren’t able to think about school without having to worry about the fact that they might be the 28th headline. (Preston, 16)


Over my own lifetime I have been bombarded with articles and news clips of school shootings. Why is this a huge topic and why is it the new normal? Teachers, children, and parents shouldn’t be afraid to send themselves and their children to a place that was never meant to be the subject of this topic. Solutions are a complex answer for this question. Some may say gun control is the answer, others mental health advocacy but at the end of the day the important matter is what steps are being taken to prevent this from happening again? because the only thing that is changing is the increasing number of shootings. (Aubry, 16)


I’m a student in 2022 who, like many before me, has been subjected to lock down drills since I can remember, being used to police presence in my schools, etc. One who sits here today again writing about a call for action that isn’t likely to happen. It is clear the mass shooting that occurred this Tuesday in Uvalde, TX,  and the one on May 14th in Buffalo, NY, or the hundreds of other mass shootings that have occurred this year and years past are no longer an indication that change needs to be made. They are another nod to the fact that change, legal change- is a long way to come. (Landen, 16)


School shootings. These words are words you hear almost every week. Everyone hears these words and goes not again. Throughout the U.S. there have been several school shootings and it is barely the beginning of 2022. This should not happen. Parents send their children to school expecting them to come home, children go to school and expect to have a fun day at school. No one should be scared to go to a place we know well. The government should not allow someone to carry a gun so easily. The U.S. should change their laws to stop letting innocent lives be taken. (Nataly, 16)


Gun violence is so prevalent now that students are becoming so desensitized to them. So many school shootings happen that sometimes they blend in together. This shouldn’t be normal, something needs to change and the fastest way to take control is by changing gun laws but rather than changing them, they are focusing on taking away a women’s right to abortion. Focusing on unborn fetuses and not on kids who are alive. Really shows what they prioritize. (Jenelle, 16) 


At least 27 school shootings in the United States this year alone, according to Education Week, “have killed 27 people and wounded dozens more.” What I say to this is it needs to be stopped. Parents are sending their kids to school to learn and earning the best education. Having a safe environment, so parents aren’t having to hear about  their loved one dying at their own school; but now you got parents second guessing about should I send my kid to public school?. (Micah, 17)


A school shooting would show up on the news almost every other night. It’s gotten so bad in America that the yearly average for how often it happens is 10 or more times a year, minimum! This year alone there have already been 27 cases, and we’ve barely made it even half way through the year. Since the latest shooting, America has been left absolutely stunned, young innocent lives were lost and for what? Cause the governor of Texas doesn’t wanna put more restrictions on accessing a weapon? I believe this is wake up time, all of these kids with bright futures ahead of them, left this world as soon as they were brought into it, all because some kid was able to access a gun. If we want to make a change in America, we have to make a change in gun laws too. (Diego, 16)


There have been an abundance of mass shootings or shootings in general this year and I can’t believe what it has come to. Everyday people have to fear that they might not see their loved ones again or be at home with their loved ones. 

The Columbine High School shooting in Colorado had 13 people killed and 20 people injured and the shooters were Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. The Virginia Tech shooting killed 33 people and injured 23 others along with the shooter being Seung-Hui Cho. Another shooting would be the Uvalde School Massacre in Texas with it killing 19 children and 2 adults and the shooter was Salvador Ramos, and one after another and the list goes on. 

There have been at least 27 school shootings in the past year and how could it happen. We have brought attention to women’s bodies and what they should do with them rather than people killing people for no reason. Why do we need to bring attention to this when it should already be the top priority? (Laray, 15 )


Growing up  after the 2000’s and going to school practicing a lockdown drill has always been a part of our lives. The sad truth is year after year the number of schools that have had shooting increases. Rather than people saying that we need to take guns away, how about having a different system. Doing not just a criminal background check but a mental health check. Along with teaching gun safety for parents and kids. Cause the guns not the issues it’s the people behind the guns the people who have the access to buying the gun, that’s the problem. (Avery, 17)


After mass shootings take place, we as a country are stuck in the cycle of posting condolences, saying change needs to be made, and going back to our normal lives until the next mass shooting happens. With the United States having the highest firearm homicide rate and being the only nation in the world where guns outnumber people, it has become painfully clear that change needs to be taken immediately to help reverse these stats. We can no longer live in a country in which mass shootings are a common part of mainstream life. How many more innocent lives have to be taken by egotistical murderers? The arguments against stricter gun control saying “the government can’t take my guns away” or “I have rights under the Second Amendment” are no longer valid if they are going to be used to kill people. Take action and reach out to organizations that advocate for stricter gun control near you. Colorado Ceasefire and 211 Colorado are good places to start to reach out to local representatives. (Mikayla,16)


“The government can’t take my guns away” but they can take our lives away. People are so eager to say that guns are needed from protection but at some point guns only protect people with guns. We as a younger generation should not have this much access to guns, knowing very well what they are capable of. Gun laws are so fought against but, these constant school shootings should be a clear reasoning on why we need them. Guns don’t give people protection they give people the right and the power to take innocent lives with the pull of a trigger. (Sariah, 16)