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Column: Don't you think we would've learned?
Published: Friday, February 15, 2008 - 1:53am
IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN, and nobody can really say anything new on the topic — but I’ll say something anyway.
People shouldn’t have to worry about getting shot at school.
Yet, it happens.
Since the Virginia Tech massacre, there have been eight in-school shootings — in middle schools, high schools and universities.
I remember thinking after the Virginia Tech shootings, “This is as bad as it gets. It just can’t get any worse. And somebody will finally do something about it.”
They’ll finally realize that people shouldn’t have such easy access to guns.
The gunman who opened fire at Northern Illinois University Thursday afternoon had not one, but three, guns.
The shooters at Columbine had four. In 2000, a shooting at an elementary school was caused by a 6-year-old’s easy access to a firearm.
Imagine all those people last night, holding Valentine’s Day gifts for the people they love, and never being able to give them away. Imagine the parents and friends who, instead of being able to spend time with their child or friend, are grieving.
So why, after all this pain, are guns still so easy to access? Don’t you think that people would’ve learned by now?
I’m not suggesting that we wipe all guns of the face of the earth — it’s simply not possible. Besides, no matter what we do to try and suppress it, evil (or maybe just insanity) will always lurk among us. People will always find a way to hurt others.
But we have to make it really difficult for them to do so. Protecting others and ourselves needs to be the priority.
After the Virginia Tech shootings many universities started to implement an emergency warning system, the University of Illinois included. Here students can sign up for the emergency messaging system, which, in the case of an emergency, will alert the students through e-mail or text messages.
I don’t know if Uni students can sign up. If something were to happen while we are at school, Uni would go in lockdown.
But what would happen if we were walking back from PE or wandering around on campus?
I hope I never have to find out.
Comments
Safety Procedures
"After the Virginia Tech shootings many universities started to implement an emergency warning system, the University of Illinois included."
My dad, who was almost on campus during the shooting (he actually left a few minutes before, thankfully) said they had police on the scene in three minutes and the entire campus locked down in twenty minutes (I think he heard a report on that). It's impressive, but it's still unfortunate. Especially since it happened at the college that I'm going to after I graduate.
they should have metal
they should have metal detectors so they dont cause another school shooting if people dont do anything about it, it will just keep happening. People can not just think that it is ok for them to be killing people like that. Metal detectors will help decrease the total of deaths a day, week, month, or year.
I think that who ever survived is a very lucky person and i send out my dearest sympathy for all of that families that lost a loved one.
Constitution and Convenience vs Low Risk Stuff
School shootings are bad. But they also are rather rare, compared to the number of schools across the country. And metal detectors are expensive, which means that a school with metal detectors is going to give up something else of equal value, plus annoy everyone. Cell phones(which you need in case of a school shooting), keys, coins, and all the other metal we carry on us every day all set off metal detectors. They're really more trouble than they're worth, unless you're looking for a more frequent problem.
Guns are a case where the legislation and the Constitution are directly opposed. The Constitution says, in the Second Amendment, that guns are supposed to be freely available. "Right to bear arms" and all that. But that's a bad idea. More guns=more accidents=more death, skirting the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" rigmarole. So the legislation tries to limit access to guns, while the Constitution puts its foot down on the availability of guns. That's why laws about guns are always a little unclear, and why this issue isn't that simple.
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