School Shooting OpEd
Vanessa Marquez
Published on 4/16 - OpEd
On February 15, I scrolled through the news expecting cute Valentines stories after the previous day's holiday, but instead I was greeted by twelve articles about the latest school shooting and another about a grandma who turned in her grandson after discovering his plot to massacre a local high school.
When did this become our norm? I come across articles like “How Florida School Shooting Unfolded on Social Media” and “Florida High School Football Coach who was seen Shielding Students from Gunfire dies” and don’t bat an eyelash. The terrifying truth is we live in a world where violence and mass shootings are normal. We live in a society where it is difficult to feel completely safe at school.
A campaign called “Don’t Name Them” calls for the media to stop making the killers famous. Many of the articles I read went into great detail about the shooter and his life. Only one talked about the victims, survivors, and the heroes.
It's like reading Harry Potter, but no one cares about Harry Potter at all (he doesn't even get a name he’s so insignificant). In fact, readers only only want to know about Voldemort. They don’t care about all the wonderful lives that were ended (you might get a list of names).
So why does the ‘villian’ get all the fame? Why don’t we talk about the beautiful people who are now dead? According to specialists the glorification of this violence can encourage others to pursue these kinds of actions. Many recent shooters have aimed to be the ‘best’ school shooter. They have studied past shooters for inspiration and to learn from their mistakes. These tragedies are becoming a game. The shooters are striving for the title of ‘most casualties,’ ‘most killed,’ and ‘worst mass shooting’ and this petrifies me. Am I just points in a game? The FBI says "We understand that the events have to be covered [by the news], but it shouldn't be a glamor piece making [the shooter] the center point of the story. We'd much rather see stories about the heroes and the victims and those sorts of things.”
CHS School Walkout Protest
Balloons and desks representing the heroes/victims of the Parkland shooting.
With the emergence of the #NeverAgain movement and the protests around the nation, many people are calling for gun control, but guns don’t kill people; people kill people. What scares me the most is that these perpetrators don’t need a gun to kill people. We can’t solve these shootings with a ban. The change has to come as a society.
We need to stop acting like this is normal and start doing something. When these tragedies occur, people are quick to point fingers at home life, bullying, mental illness, and being a loner. The truth is people are affected by a lot more than their home lives. They are affected by everyone and everything that goes on around them. It's hard to find solutions to these sort of social problems. As a society, we need to stop pointing finger and change. We need to make sure no one feels so alone and abandoned that they are willing to slaughter those around them. Change needs to happen; the nationwide protests and campaigns prove that everyone knows this senseless slaughter of school children can’t continue, and I hope everyone can come together to put a stop to these tragedies.