Bang.

Why is it a popular opinion that anyone under the age of thirty doesn’t know what they’re talking about? Why is it that when I try to explain my thinking in a debate with an adult they refuse to see my point of view because I wasn’t alive during 9/11? One of the main arguments I have heard against my generation is the fact that acts of violence like school shootings weren’t a thing before we came along, that Columbine was the first.

Bang. Stockton schoolyard, 6, 29

Bang. University of Iowa, 6, 1

Bang. Lindhurst high school, 4, 10

Bang. West Side Middle school, 5, 10

Bang. Thurston High school, 4, 25.

These were all before Columbine, before my generation was even a thought. Shootings are not a new thing, but we are just now realizing the true horrors that come out of a barrel. Teachers are now teaching students that they have tasks and responsibilities when there is an active shooter, we are taught that we have three options; barricade, evacuate, and attack. Schools are telling elementary students that if a stranger comes into their school with a gun that they are to throw things at the stranger and that it is okay to hurt them.

After 9/11, society realized how dangerous people can be so airports raised security measures. What kind of tragedy needs to occur for school boards to realize that people can be dangerous?  Flight attendants don’t have “hijacking drills” where they teach the passengers what to do just in case, instead there are TSA agents that check bags, pat people down, and make sure that they have nothing dangerous. But at schools it is now common occurrence to have active shooter and lock down drills because that is the only way to keep the students safe without getting rid of guns. Parents would rather use their child’s fear of death to keep them alive than actually have to put in an effort to make a change.