Sitting at home over February break, I was flipping through the channels until I landed on the news, which was reporting on the shooting at Northern Illinois University.
Listening in awe to the details that were being given, I was immediately brought back to when I flipped through the channels at my grandfather’s house close to nine years ago.
At that time, I, like the rest of country, was learning of the massacre that had taken place at Columbine High School, where on April 20, 1999, two students opened fire on students and faculty, killing twelve and wounding twenty-three before taking their own lives.
Though I remember being frightened by what I was hearing, the gravity of the situation didn’t really affect me until I turned to the news on February 14, 2008 and saw that a gunman had unleashed fire on students and faculty at NIU, killing five and wounding sixteen.
I think the passage of time and growing older has given me a new outlook on the rash of shootings that have happened in the past year (and decade).
For me it is no longer a situation where shootings happen elsewhere; they happen at our schools and in our hometowns.
This fear has expanded in me, and it seems to have expanded in others as well.
In a letter to the Portland Press Herald, Sacopee Valley High School teacher Ralph K. Ginorio voiced his opinions on mass shootings.
He believes that “in a world where madmen murder schoolchildren, we must select, train and arm volunteer, well-trained teachers so that they might be their students’ protectors.”
Though I empathize with his desire to protect students and faculty from those wielding guns, an article in The New York Times titled “Gun Crazy” puts forth something that to me makes more sense: “practical steps the nation can take that would make it more difficult for dangerous people to obtain deadly firepower.”
One of these steps is that background checks should be required for every gun purchase. “That means closing the egregious loophole that permits unlicensed dealers to sell firearms at gun shows without conducting any background check,” the article states.
Time will tell if tougher gun laws come to fruition, and in the meantime what the public is left with are sorrowful reminders of the tragedies that have occurred.
A “lie-in” to commemorate last year’s shooting at Virginia Tech will take place in Portland (and at other locations nationwide) on April 16th from 11:45 to 12:15 p.m., and I plan to attend.
The lie-in will feature thirty-two people dressed in black, to represent the thirty-two victims of Virginia Tech, lying down simultaneously.
Seeing this will not only remind us of past shootings, it will also show us how far we have to go.