Spreading Awareness About Mass Shootings

Charlotte Parsons | Writer

According to the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center, a mass shooting is when at least four people are killed or severely injured. There have been 93 mass shootings in 2023, as of the end of February.

Many college students said they didn’t know the number was so high already. Some, like Hailee Bloch, a senior at Cedar Crest College, said there need to be more regulations to make purchasing a firearm harder because it’s too easy to get a gun in Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, many people believe firearms are accessible with very little regulation on required background checks. The minimum age to purchase a long gun is 18 and 21 for a handgun. Only federally licensed sellers are required to perform background checks, but there is no long wait period.

That said, many think there has been significant progress in safety laws, not only in Pennsylvania but in the United States over the past few years.

According to the March for Our Lives organization, over 150 gun violence prevention laws have passed. March for Our Lives is a student-led organization that was created following the shooting in Parkland, Florida by a group of teenagers who wanted to make a change–and are still making waves every day.

After the tragic shooting in Uvalde County, many Texans were outraged by the delay in response time. There were multiple reports stating while the police were armed, they still took an hour and fourteen minutes to proceed with rescuing students. Terrible attacks like these and many others make children afraid of going to school. With the increasing amounts of mass shootings, school teachers have to prepare not only lesson plans but life-saving tools.