A man fired a pistol into a classroom Tuesday at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, killing two students and wounding four others. Minutes later, an alert popped up on computer monitors and projector screens: “Run, Hide, Fight. Secure yourself immediately.”
I was younger than 2 years old when the Columbine massacre happened in 1999, though I don’t recall learning about it until middle school. I was a high school freshman in 2012 when Adam Lanza killed twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School and a high school senior when a shooter killed eight students and a teacher at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.
Mass shootings on campuses nationwide have felt like a hallmark of our generation’s education, and it weighs on my mind every time I come to campus.
When I get lunch at the Idaho Commons, I avoid sitting in the open food court area just in case. At the Homecoming bonfire in October, my partner and I jumped at a bang from the center of the crowd. It wasn’t a gunshot — just a firecracker or something — but that split second of fear made us so nervous and uncomfortable we decided to leave early. As Vandals get ready to see AJR in the Kibbie Dome this weekend, I can’t help but think of the UNC Charlotte students on Tuesday who should have been enjoying Waka Flocka Flame at their own version of Finals Fest, not running from gunshots and grieving the deaths of their fellow students.
Logan Finney | Argonaut
The movement that emerged from last year’s tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, finally felt like the tipping point that could bring about action on school shootings. Dozens of states passed laws allowing petitions for law enforcement to seize guns from dangerous individuals, expanding background checks and restricting gun ownership for people with domestic violence convictions.
This week’s annual National Rifle Association convention has seen roiling controversy as their president resigned and members attempted to oust the longtime CEO, while the group’s fundraising numbers continue to drop and investigations into their internal finances loom. Against this backdrop, I can’t help but wonder, could this be the decade the political fever finally breaks and school shootings come to an end?
No student should come to a high school or college campus wondering if they’ll make it home that day or be shot dead delivering final presentations. I hope the tragedy that struck UNC Charlotte this week never reaches the University of Idaho campus.
I do, however, lack trust in our administration’s history with the Vandal Alert system and its ability to keep us safe if it ever did.
While other states passed laws in effort to keep guns away from dangerous people, Idaho’s state government voted down similar measures and even made it easier for young people to carry concealed handguns within city limits. The national parties in DC have Congress as gridlocked as ever.
Without government action on gun violence in the immediate future, it’s up to the next UI administration under President Scott Green to demonstrate a commitment to student safety on campus — and not to send out alerts implying professors are on their way with firearms.
Logan Finney can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @lfinneytweets