I was sitting in English class today, and a thought that has been plaguing my mind reappeared. How would my classmates and I escape safely in the case an armed intruder came into the school? As I was mapping out theoretical routes for each of my seven classes, other thoughts ran through my mind: what would I text my parents?, and do I even stand a chance against an assault rifle?
A simple answer is no. I don’t stand a chance against an AR-15.
Ten out of 17 of the deadliest shootings in the US since 2012 have involved with the intruder(s) using an AR-15.
Included in ten of these deadly shootings were three schools.
In a recent Washington Post article called “The Blast Effect”, Joseph Sakran, a gunshot survivor who advocates for gun violence prevention and a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, notes that, “A single bullet (of an AR-15) lands with a shock wave intense enough to blow apart a skull and demolish vital organs. The impact is even more acute on the compact body of a small child.”
Why are military grade weapons that were able to kill 60 people and injure 869 others in less than 11 minutes so easily available that approximately 1 in every 20 adults in the U.S. own an AR-15? That is equivalent to about 60 million assault rifles nationwide.
As a 16 year old, who can’t even legally purchase a lighter, with a simple search of “where to buy an AR-15” on Google I was brought to numerous sites where I could simply buy assault rifles, along with many other automatic weapons available for purchase without showing any proof that I was over the age of 18.
On one site in particular, topgunsupply.com, I was given the opportunity to purchase over 40 different types of guns, including 138 different models of the AR-15. When I added a weapon “to cart”, to purchase (for research purposes only), all I needed to provide was my billing address and credit card information. This process was significantly easier than purchasing a passport and even medical prescriptions. It should not be this way.
I am writing this exactly one week after a school shooting at the Covenant School, in Nashville, Tennessee. Six dead, including three nine year olds. My heart is with the families of everyone involved and the Nashville community during this time.
Nine year olds should be learning how to do long division, not how to escape an AR-15. How many students have to die for there to be stricter gun laws in the United States? More needs to be done by the government to save innocent lives. The AR-15 needs to be banned.
I’m writing this article on behalf of all students in the United States. We should never have to worry about our safety at school. We shouldn’t be nervous that when we say goodbye to our parents in the morning it could be the last time.
Sources Used:
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/28/1166482479/nashville-school-shooting-covenant-what-we-know
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101274322/uvalde-ar-15-style-rifle-history-shooter-mass-shooting
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/28/ar-15-assault-rifles-magazines-ban/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-body/
