Op/Ed––Ending the "too soon" mentality in the wake of school shootings

This article was originally published in The Falcon.

Walk into any high school and you’ll undoubtedly find a number of stressed students. Victims to the competitive demands of college admissions, teenagers face mounting expectations. Get good grades. Volunteer. Get involved in as many clubs as possible. Take upper-level classes. Step into leadership positions.

The requests swirl around us constantly. But now, with the epidemic of school shootings raging through the country, we find ourselves with yet another expectation: Don’t become the victim of a school shooting.

For a group of kids already facing increasing pressures and stress, the prospect of being shot while at school should not be another worry. Still, it’s hard to avoid. Coming home from school, we often discover headlines on our Twitter feeds and televisions––videos of teenagers just like us crying and discussing their lost classmates, people across the country sharing their anger, their frustrations about the state of gun control in the United States.

But on Capitol Hill, congressmen argue it’s too soon for talk of common sense gun laws. “It’s time for prayers,” they assure Americans. They make television appearances, decrying the senseless violence facing our country’s children. Then, they forget.

They let the issue fade into the wind, disappear from our Twitter feeds, and leave the headlines––until the next one happens. The cycle repeats again and again, allowing politicians to evade the problem completely with their high NRA ratings clasped close to their hearts.

The Columbine shooting happened 6,983 days ago, Virginia Tech happened 4,061 days ago, Sandy Hook happened 1,992 days ago––and still there has been no national change. Instead, politicians take advantage of recent school shootings, the one in Santa Fe having happened only 12 days ago, to continue their “too soon” mentality.

With the added distractions of the current administration, the headlines slip away with little discussion. But for the teenagers still listening to active shooter presentations, still opening their phones to more devastation, still waiting for change, the issue is not going away.

No, it is not too soon to talk about common sense gun reform. In fact, for the number of students and teachers who have died at the hands of an active shooter, it is much too late.