OPINION: The end of school shootings starts with local action

As of Oct. 23, there have been 58 school shootings. That is almost six shootings for every month of 2024 so far. One of the most recent tragedies was the shooting in Apalachee High School on Sept. 4 killing two students and two staff members. In light of these events, and the upcoming election, many people are asking what can be done to prevent events like those seen at Apalachee from happening again.

This is a complex question because although votes are imperative to local elections, most of our national votes are a drop in the bucket. This is not to say that people should not vote in national elections, just that simply voting in national elections will not create the kind of large-scale shift needed to create safer school environments and better gun regulation.

Statistically speaking, Cambridge University has found that while school shootings may impact who individuals choose to vote for, it does not actually increase voter turnout in terms of presidential elections and on a large scale.

One would think the data would reveal that voting increased due to tragedy, showing a vested interest by the public to prevent events of this sort from happening in the future, but this was not the case. The lack of increased voter turnout on a large scale reflects the general media desensitization experienced on an international scale to graphic and violent events. With increased exposure to graphic or violent content, individuals become less sensitive or empathetic to the tragedies happening around them.

Despite the rate of school shootings increasing year after year, the overall media desensitization to these kinds of tragedies impedes our ability as a nation to prevent them from continuing to happen. So then what does this prevention look like, and what needs to be done in order to begin the end of school shootings?

Based on data from a CNN graphic about school shootings, states with looser gun laws tend to have more school shootings on average. Areas with more school shootings also tend to have more limited support in schools for their students. This is, of course, also influenced by population density and political culture, but the statistic still exposes a common pattern in U.S. school shootings as a whole that there is a need for regulation and resources in local communities.

Furthermore, gun regulation in the U.S. is largely handled on a state level due to the vague language in the Second Amendment. States with stricter gun laws tend to experience less gun violence and vice versa for those with looser gun laws. This reinforces that national levels of gun violence are heavily influenced by individual states addressing the issue since it is largely not managed on a national level.

According to Saferwatch, some of the best ways to actually prevent school shootings are through advocating for counseling in schools, normalizing mental health issues and support, voting for reasonable gun control laws in your state and creating a way for potential threats to be reported.

Alfred did a survey asking what can be done to prevent school shootings, and the most popular response, 23%, was teachers caring about their students with 12% saying intervention and listening would help prevent school shootings. Based on this survey, providing appropriate intervention and mental health resources to schools and educators would greatly support preventing school shootings. This is not to say that teachers do not care about their students, but, rather, the care that they do provide to their students is viewed as heavily impactful on the outcome of student mental health and success.

Both the suggestions from Safewatch and Alfred convey the idea that communities feel that local, focused action is what would make the biggest impact on their students and educators.

All of this is to say that starting on the local level and taking local action, is needed in order to begin the end of school shootings. Local legislation, financing and resources can make a large local impact saving the lives of students, teachers and staff in local schools. Although the impact may feel small, acting on the local level is the first step toward lowering the national rate of school shootings.

Abigail Godsen (she/her) is a junior majoring in Applied Information Sciences with a minor in Classics. She is Campus Editor for The Campus Citizen. When she isn’t writing, Abby likes to cook, do crossword puzzles and drink a lot of tea. She can be summoned using anything shiny or books.

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