The Columbine shooting took place in 1999. Fifty shootings later, a former student of Parkland High School in Florida killed 17 students and teachers. This prompted the March For Our Lives, a march on D.C. led by some of the survivors of the shooting. Since the Parkland shooting, which occurred last Valentine’s Day, there have been some state-led movements restricting gun control laws. A major difference that is happening in schools across the board is active shooter drills.
Similar to hurricane or lock-down drills, active shooter drills teach students and teachers what to do in a situation when there is a shooter in the building. They learn how to choose the best place to hide, which can be helpful in avoiding potential casualties. At the same time, they are learning how to provide basic first aid in case their classmates get injured. This could, in a real situation, save lives. Oftentimes, the victim of a shooting could survive the initial injury, but by the time medical professionals reach them, they have lost too much blood. The logic behind these drills is that if a child can properly apply a tourniquet, the survival rate of a school shooting would be greatly increased.
The reason children die in school shootings is not because of slow EMT response. The reason is the guns. The first step to protecting children in schools from guns is to take away the guns. Florida, along with other states following the shooting, tightened their regulations on who can get a gun, which is a good start. In many states, there is no background check before a customer can purchase a gun. They could have a history of violence or high risk of threatening to shoot up a school, and a gun shop would be allowed to sell them a gun. That is simply revolting. So, sure, training children how to hide from a scary situation or how to help their friends not bleed out might save a few lives, but at the end of the day, the way to solve the problem is at the source by not letting anyone buy a gun.
Active shooter drills are teaching children and teachers to be paranoid and afraid to be in a learning environment. This, so far, has been proven to be justified, as children have died in their classrooms, but this is not the safe and happy environment students should have to learn in.
Children should not have to be taught to be a battlefield medic because our government is incapable of solving the gun crisis in America.
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