By Kimberly Perez
Recently, it seems to many that there are many more shootings than there used to be. It seems like they are happening more and more often. This generation is living in a world where they do not feel safe walking to school, getting to work or just going out at all. It is like no one ever know what is going to happen. Who wants to leave the house every day and wonder if they are going to get back home to their families again?
The recent case of the Nashville, Tennessee, shooting at a private Christian school is exactly the type of situation I am talking about. None of the kids or teachers in this school were thinking that they would get shot by an invader when they went into that school on that sad day. Audrey Hale, a trans male was the shooter in this case.
It was a normal sunny day when he went to the front doors and finding that they were locked (good job) he shot the window out and opened the door. In just a few minutes, which must have seemed like an eternity for those poor people inside the school, Hale shot three kids and three adults. One of the saddest things you will ever hear is that there were adults hunched over the children, dead, showing that they died protecting the children. These teachers are true heroes.
As bad as it is, this situation could have been much worse. The Tennessee police arrived very quickly, entered the building immediately and took out the bad guy as fast as possible. A couple of police entered the building, using their training, they cleared halls until they found the shooter, and took him out before he shot anyone else. If not for the skill and bravery of the police officers this could have been much, much worse.
Now that this sad event is over, since the shooter was a transgender, the questions and political arguments about the motivation of the criminal has begun. There will never be an answer that will satisfy the public because this is a pointless event. There is never an excuse to go and kill innocent people.
As a supporter of the trans comunity, this event does not help their situation. It will be harder to get trans rights in Tennessee because of this event.
CBS news reported, “In Tennessee we’ve already lost so much because of the shooting and it’s horrible to contemplate the spiral we might be about to enter.”
Now people are painting trans people as bad and dangerous people. They should not do this because not everyone is the same. Everyone is different and just because one person did something that is not okay it has to screw everyone else over.
Senior Matt Brocato said, “It is wrong to paint all people with the same brush in the LGBTQ community, but that should be the same rule for others too. Just because a shooter is white doesn’t mean that there is massive white supremacy everywhere.”
The gun control debate is also a debate for this shooting since the shooter got a gun legally. A lot of people think that it should not be as easy as it is to get a gun. It should not be that easy for someone to be able to buy a gun and have it on hand.
Gun control laws need to become stricter and enforced a lot for situations like this not to happen. If someone goes to a shop and buys a gun, they should first run some type of background check on them and verify with them to make sure they have the permission that they are able to buy a gun and carry it around. Guns are supposed to be used for protection and not be used to kill innocent lives let alone nine-year-old children.
Of course, there are those that say that the gun laws are strict enough already, but something must be done to protect children in schools. People need to feel safe in their daily lives, going to school and work and just living. So, we should all come together to see how the best way is to make our lives as safe as possible. We all have important things to do and lives to live.
