Evergreen, Arapahoe, Grand Junction, Denver East, and the list goes on, as these are only some of the names of Colorado school shootings that have occurred since the infamous Columbine High School incident. It has been 26 years since Columbine brought gun violence into the national spotlight, and these atrocities are somehow still continuing.
And just think, this is only Colorado. In the United States, during 2025 alone, there have been 141 incidents of gunfire, causing 44 deaths and 129 injuries, according to Everytown.
School is supposed to be a safe, secure zone dedicated to the peaceful pursuit for knowledge and education. However, schools are forced to install bulletproof glass, and several times a year, students sit down to watch yet another school shooting safety video. It is the same one as last semester, and the year before that and the year before that. We have been watching these videos, hyper-conscious of school shootings, since elementary school.
Along with safety videos, lockdown drills are a normal part of life at school. We are forced to hide out of the hallway line of sight, forced to accept that the risk of gun violence is a very real possibility, a frighteningly normal possibility. It has gotten to the point where teachers have elaborate plans of what they will do if an attacker breaches the classroom and threatens the students. We all know teachers don’t get paid enough to have to worry about the lives of their students as well as teaching.
To be clear: all of these protective measures are extremely important. It is the fact that these things are so necessary that is extremely sad to me. We shouldn’t have to live in a world of fear and violence.
The hard truth is, the use of guns and violence is intrinsically woven into the fabric of American culture. There are many right-wing conservatives who are against gun control, even as these mass shootings are occurring. So the question is: what is more valuable to you? Children or guns?
Unfortunately, many Americans answer with guns. Not directly, of course. But until guns are controlled, the lives of children are at stake.
