Photo from Lorie Shaull for Live Wire
On April 20, 1999, two 12th grade students walked into Columbine High School armed with a 9mm rifle, a handgun, and two 12-gauge shotguns. In just 49 minutes, they injured 20 people and murdered 14. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in American history.
And it stayed that way, until 2012.
At Sandy Hook Elementary School, 20 first graders and 6 teachers were shot and killed by a young man who had put four gunshot wounds in his mom with a 0.22-caliber Savage Mark II rifle before taking her car and driving it to Sandy Hook that morning. According to Connecticut gun laws, he was old enough to carry a rifle or shotgun, as long as it wasn’t a hand gun. He had easy access to the weapons as well, his mother’s house was full of them. The gun he used was purchased completely legally. 26 lives were taken by a legal weapon in 5 minutes.
These early school shootings were the first of thousands.
According to the organization Sandy Hook Promise, 12 children die from gun violence every day in the United States. 32 more are shot and injured. Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children. Since Columbine, 390,000 students in the US have experienced gun violence at school. In 2024 alone, over 1,400 children died from firearms.
But what’s causing this spike in tragedy? Well, the intuitive answer is the weapon. Guns.
If there’s been a spike in school shootings or even deaths from guns in general, surely the guns themselves are the ones to blame. All of these terrible instances of people, particularly young children, losing their lives can be avoided if there wasn’t access to a military grade weapon in the first place.Or, at the very least, if we limit its use and distribution.
So why don’t we just do that? Why don’t we just ban guns or try to slap some sort of greater regulation on them that would actually show sufficient change?
The unfortunate fact is that Americans love guns. A lot. In fact, there are more guns than people in the US. “With 120.5 civilian-owned firearms per 100 people, the United States has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world,” The World Population Review reports. “Given the ongoing frequency of gun violence in the United States, particularly gun-enabled suicides and mass shootings in schools, places of worship, and businesses, many people believe that gun laws should be revised and tightened. However, gun control is a highly politicized issue in the U.S., which makes nationwide reforms difficult to pass.”
While nationwide reform may be difficult, that hasn’t stopped change from being attempted at the state level. “Connecticut has among the strongest gun safety laws,” Everytown Research and Policy publishes. “In recent years, Connecticut enacted a suite of new gun safety policies, including prohibiting open carry of firearms in public, strengthening its secure firearm storage law, strengthening dealer licensing requirements, and increasing legal accountability for the gun industry.” Many of these new regulations on firearms were spurred by Sandy Hook. When lawmakers saw that legal weapons can still be used for illegal actions, they recognized that change was needed. Since Sandy Hook, Connecticut is considered to be one of the least gun-violence ridden states in the US, mainly thanks to the listed reforms.
Besides tightening gun laws, other measures have been taken to keep kids safe in the case of danger from guns. “Approximately 98% of public K-12 schools in the U.S. carry out lockdown drills, introduced after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings,” writes Morrison at Forbes. “The drills aim to help prepare children for shooting events at school, with many states requiring them to be carried out every academic year.” The vast majority of young people have participated in a lock down drill. Classrooms practice locking doors, covering up windows, hiding, and keeping quiet. What was a completely foreign concept to even some millennials is now seen as a necessary precaution across every American school.
So in 2026 we’ve got lock down drills, we’ve got some restrictions, and, most importantly, we’ve got hindsight. With all of that in mind, what’s the current gun situation in the US?
“The United States saw some of the lowest levels of gun violence on record,” statistics from The Trace show, reflecting on 2025. “But still more than 110 people were shot each day.” As of the publication of this article, there are no official counts for the amount of deaths from guns in 2026. However, figures on social media put it at over 1,000 from January alone. There’s already been two instances of gun violence on school property, and the voices speaking out against gun ownership are getting louder and louder.
That being said, what’s the argument for keeping any guns at all?
Well, the first argument you’ll hear without a doubt is the Second Amendment. For clarification, the Second Amendment protects the right of the people to bear arms. In other words, to be in possession of a gun. Of course, there are limitations to that amendment based on weapon type and person. The average Joe can’t own a nuclear weapon and most felons can’t carry any gun at all. Americans against gun restriction are quick to hold up the Second Amendment. If they haven’t done any wrong and have demonstrated no need for themselves to be regulated, then any restriction is an infringement on their freedom. It undermines American values at its core, the Constitution.
Apart from the Constitution though, guns are also there for safety.
“One thing that American gun owners tend to agree on, no matter their differences, is that guns are for personal protection,” The Department of Psychology reveals. “72% of gun owners reported that they owned a firearm at least in part for protection, and 81% of gun owners reported that owning a gun helped them to feel safer.” This isn’t just for peace of mind though, guns have actually been shown to decrease harm from violent crimes. According to the US DOJ, studies for rape found that using a gun as protection reduced the likelihood of a completed rape or injury significantly. For some Americans, owning a gun isn’t just about principle, it can be for survival.
Now we know both sides to the story. On one hand, many American children have died as a result of a gun often purchased legally. On the other hand, some Americans rely on guns to feel safe and their right to do so is written in the Constitution itself.
Besides, guns have been around forever. Why is this only a problem now?
Outside of school shootings, there are multiple other instances of gun violence like suicide and political violence. According to the NIH, “A nationwide study found that social capital (levels of trust in institutions), social mobility, income inequality, and social service spending demonstrated significant associations with firearm homicide rates.” The exact problems and the intensity of them is unique to this moment. Even if a similar strain was felt in the past, it didn’t produce the same impacts we can see today. What may have worked in the past, earlier, more lax gun regulations, just doesn’t work now.
However, distrust in institutions isn’t the only reason cited for gun violence. Especially not for school shootings. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed, as he has before, that certain antidepressant drugs, known as SSRIs, ‘might be contributing to violence’,” McDonald at Fact Check writes. “Experts say there is no direct evidence linking SSRIs to mass shootings. He also falsely claimed SSRIs have black box warnings for homicidal ideation.” The antidepressant drug theory just isn’t true, but mental struggle has been prominent in just about every school shooting. This was demonstrated prominently with Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, whose warning signs in the years leading up to the shooting were left almost completely unaddressed. After Sandy Hook, districts now recognize the importance of checking in on kids’ mental health in order to avoid another tragedy.
So, what exactly are these regulations proposed to decrease gun violence?
To start, no one is trying to take everyone’s gun away. While that would be the safest bet, no one can be shot if no one has a gun, it’s just not feasible. Guns are just too important to Americans. However, things like stronger background checks that apply to all guns have been suggested at the federal level. Raising the minimum age for ownership of long guns from 18 to 21 has also been proposed alongside standardized securitization of firearms and banning the sale of certain military grade weapons to the public.
These regulations aren’t radical by any standard. Most people who currently own a gun would still be able to do so, just with more guidance. When you look at the full picture, it seems like a pretty reasonable price to pay for a much greater cause.
When all is said and done, it’s the simple truth that the current landscape in America surrounding gun violence still needs to be changed. Small improvements that have been seen in past years are great, and the precautions schools and states are taking to avoid more deaths are working. But, hundreds of people are still shot each day and gun violence remains the leading cause of death for American children. The standard cannot just be “improvement.” There needs to be real change. And, for real change to happen, there needs to be real regulations.
Be First to Comment