Not only as a current student but also as a child living in the United States, the issues revolving around the decades of gun violence have affected a large portion of my life. I began schooling around the age of five in Pre-K and will continue my education after high school. But one thing I have learned is that no matter where I choose to go, I’ll never be safe. I’m not only frightened for the well-being of my life but for my peers, as well. Shootings occur daily across this country, and though they may not affect you and your peers directly today, they will most likely affect you someday. 

On March 27, 2023, what is known as the 2022 Covenant School shooting took place at The Covenant School, a private Presbyterian parochial school in Nashville, Tennessee. Six innocent people were shot and killed that morning. Three of those victims were only nine years old and the other three were staff members at the school. The assailant, a twenty-eight-year-old resident of Nashville, was killed by the responding police officers. 

This is not the first time the citizens of America have experienced a school shooting. Every year for over the past two decades, there has been a school shooting in the U.S. To be exact, there have been 376 school shootings since the infamous Columbine High School shooting in 1999. It is guaranteed that the number of school shootings will continue to rise this year and in the future unless we take steps to change the trajectory.

A child should not have to live in fear as they step into what should be a safe and protected place. The sad reality, however, is that this is exactly what a child in America feels. To live in dread is to not live at all. 

As the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution claims, each citizen can carry a firearm as long as it is legally issued. However, what the document forgets to mention, is the capabilities of that amendment, and the intentions one may have behind the trigger. 

“I think that for a country that claims to be progressive, the amount of school shootings is unjustified and it’s an issue that should be dealt with collectively as a society to find a solution because it’s only leading to an increasing rate at this point,” says senior Liliana Ibarra Cazas.

Students here at Segerstrom High School are fear-stricken that one day at school, they might become a victim of another school shooting. On October 14, 2023, the students of Segerstrom had a taste of this fear. The high school was immediately locked down after receiving an anonymous call about an active shooter on campus. Responding officers flooded the campus and searched the entire school for the shooter. The anonymous call was later deemed a hoax, and there was no actual threat on campus. Even though there wasn’t an active shooter on campus, students still experienced similar traumatic fear.  

“I was super scared, I was shaking and felt like I wasn’t able to walk,” said Casey Guardado (10). 

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is not only a heavily outdated law but is also a threat to liberty and the lives who live under it. Unfixable things shouldn’t be forced to be put back together just for them to break again. The Second Amendment is broken and we the people have to face the consequences. The only way to fix this problem is by abolishing it entirely. 

After hundreds of school shootings have occurred in the U.S. for the past decades, you may be wondering what we as people have done to prevent another death: absolutely nothing. We mourn the deaths of the victims for some time, then forget it as if it never even happened. And again, the cycle repeats, and another child is taken away from their family. How much more innocent blood should be shed before we do something about it?