United States of America
Written by: Vidur Srikrishna
Summary:
On March 27, 2023, another school shooting took place, this time killing 3 9-year-olds and 3 adults. 28-year-old Audrey Hale was the shooter who opened fire at the Covenant School in Nashville. According to NPR, Hale was a former student of the school. Police said that there was no evidence that specific people had been targeted. According to CNN, the shooter fired 152 rounds during the attack. This was planned over months. Hale fired at arriving officers through a window. 14 minutes after the shooter had entered, they were killed (10:27 a.m). One of the adults killed was 60 while the other two were 61 years old. Police are still trying to determine a motive for the attack, however, they concluded that according to the writings left behind by Hale, it was a calculated and planned attack. It is believed that the victims were shot at randomly. This is the deadliest school shooting since the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, which took place last May.
Analysis:
According to CNN and NPR, Hale had legally bought seven firearms and hid them at home. Three of those guns, including 2 assault-style firearms, were used in the shooting. There have been 13 school shootings this year alone that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to EducationWeek. The latest situation was in Nashville. Last year, there were 51 school shootings. Schools need to start adding more security to stop these attacks or at least delay the attack so less get injured or killed. From the 13 school shootings this year, 6 students or children were killed, 4 employees or adults were killed, and 13 people were injured. This totals to 23 people injured or killed in a school shooting this year in America.
Analysis 2:
To stop gun violence, especially in schools, security levels should be stepped up. There should be something or someone overseeing who is able to get near the school so police can arrive sooner. An armed 28-year-old should not be able to enter a school this easily. Metal detectors at entrances could be a good idea. If someone has nothing to hide, they would take out items that may be detected. Although this seems like a good idea, some may say that it’s not effective if someone pulled out a firearm before the metal detector. A solution to this issue would be having armed security guards on campus. The issue with this, however, is that this would be costly and some may not feel safe with firearms on campus to begin with. Another solution is to raise the gun age which could have prevented recent shootings. For example, in Uvalde, the gunman was 18 years of age. Raising the age, for example, to 21 could stop some of these school shootings from happening. For the remaining group, there should be mandatory training for people to have firearms. This should be a long process with many tests for a person to be allowed to have a firearm.
Sources
Call to action:
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