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Preventing School Shootings in North Carolina
A perspective from Savannah Ruff
Each day, around twelve different children die in America from different school shootings and a whole different thirty-two are shot and injured. This is from Sandy Hook Promise. My father grew up in Michigan, and in the past few months, there have been two mass school shootings at two different schools, Michigan State University and Oxford High School. My father went to Oxford and now that subject is very delicate for him. This is just one example of how school shootings and gun violence affect people even if they have graduated from school. School shootings and overall gun violence in North Carolina are growing and they need to stop. North Carolina does have laws against gun violence in schools, but it is not enough because some kids or adults do not care if they get in trouble, they will still do it anyway. Schools should be more cautious and have a more secure system about gun violence in the buildings.
According to the Sandy Hook Promise website, firearm deaths occur more than five times more often than drownings. People need to be more cautious about what the students bring into school. According to Giffords.org, it supports my reasoning because it shows which states allow which laws about gun violence and which states do not. This shows how some states are more aware than other states and I think that they should all be extremely strict about this topic in schools. Should students really want kids to be nervous to go to school because they have either experienced something like this before or just because they know that the environment is unsafe? Some people may think that it is necessary to carry a firearm to school in case something happens and that they should just use it as a self-defense weapon. That is still not okay, since they could still very well use it in the wrong way either just for the fun of it or because they are annoyed with someone. This all shows the danger with guns in schools.
In conclusion, so many people get injured from school shootings, but once it happens, no one does anything about it, so schools should be aware of what is happening and what students are bringing into the school. In addition, schools should be aware if there is someone who looks suspicious on their property. Should kids really suffer from this fear? All schools should get at least one police officer in every school, and North Carolina should really raise awareness to this issue.
Savannah Ruff
7th Grade McDougle Middle School Student
Chapel Hill, NC
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