Editorial: How To Solve School Shootings

Editorial%3A+How+To+Solve+School+Shootings

Renee Jessen, Isabella Hunter, Jordyn Pollard, Kloe Price, and Gillian Graver
March 1, 2018

Sandy hook and Stoneman Douglas

You’ve heard of the school shootings that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and now Stoneman Douglas High School. Why do you think this happens? Some people say mental illness, yet others say gun control. What do you think the reasons people lash out and shoot up a school are? School shooting are a really big problem in the United States. Parents are scared to let their children go to school, because the shooters shoot without a warning. There’s so many shootings that we don’t even hear about. So what do you think we should do to solve the problem?

Those affected

School shootings change so many lives, in all kinds of ways. The victims, their parents, the teachers, and the receivers of the information. The shooters have to be very selfish to murder and injure innocent people, just because of their own bad experiences at the school.

Nikolas Cruz

Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people, and injured several more. Cruz used an assault rifle on February 14, 2018. He took an Uber to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Cruz went to McDonald’s just after the shooting, and might have met with someone. Cruz was able to slip away from the campus by blending in with other students who were trying to escape. According to a report on ABC News. The sad news about this is, the FBI were tipped off over a month ago over Cruz having a gun, and wanting to, “kill people”. The FBI didn’t follow proper protocol, and the information provided by the caller was not assessed as a potential threat to life. The info was never forwarded to the Miami FBI field office but, this isn’t the first or last school shooting in 2018.  A report on Fox News says.  The average shooting on a campus is about 63 hours in 2018. There have been eight other school shootings so far this year. Says Huffington Post about 2018 school shootings And in 2017, there were more than 244 mass shootings, when will it stop?

Lonely and depressed

Kimberley and James Snead said, Nikolas Cruz was lonely and depressed, but they saw no warning signs. Nikolas Cruz lost his mother in November to the Flu, and his father when he was young. According to reports, Cruz and his brother both suffered from mental health issues, including ADHD and OCD, and took medication as treatment. In that particular call, the sheriff’s office said that Nikolas and his mother were fighting over paperwork needed for him to get an ID card. In their report, deputies detailed how the teen had been harming himself and, had talked about buying a gun. Despite the repeated calls to authorities, Cruz was never arrested, and was cleared as being, “no threat to anyone or himself,” as one therapist said in a police report from Sept. 28, 2016. Says a Fox News report on the issue.

 Gun Control

To solve the problem that we’re experiencing with school shootings, we can take better care of who is handed guns. We should think of taking up gun control to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. We can get better security in schools and other buildings so we can assure the  safety of everyone in the building. For example, metal detectors could be installed at the entrances, or bags should be checked under certain circumstances. We also need to look out for each other. Stay close to one another and not harm or bully other people. Even if that will still happen, we need to look out for these signs so that these students will not feel the urge to shoot up the school or hurt anybody. We must push forward and try to and prevent these shootings.

     What we can do

A school shooting can affect someone’s life forever, especially if they lose someone that meant something to them. If society was to look at all the possible signs of a shooting, we could save so many lives. Many can be affected by one person’s deeds. Find a way that works, and stop fighting. The longer the people fight about it, the more people are going to end up dead. Is hurting and endangering someone’s life really going to make your life better?

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