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In the first two and a half months of 2024, 4,994 people died of gun violence in the U.S. and another 3,351 have been injured. That’s an average of 108 gun violence-related deaths each day.
Read that again.
5,000 people have died in preventable incidents in just two months because of the weak gun legislation in the U.S.
Yet these atrocities are no longer shocking to U.S. citizens. They have become simply normal, even expected. How has it become the norm for adults and children to be shot and killed every day?
The leading cause of death for children in the U.S. is now gun violence, not car crashes, not disease, not even choking, yet many legislators refuse to enact laws to prevent gun violence. In fact, many of them are trying to remove any remaining gun laws.
Ohio legislators eliminated a law in June of 2022 that required people wishing to purchase a gun to get a permit and safety training before carrying a concealed gun in public. They also passed a law that allows K–12 schools to arm teachers.
In addition, they enacted a Shoot First Law in early 2021 which allows people to shoot and kill in dangerous situations even if they can safely walk away from the situation. This leads to approximately 150 additional gun deaths each month nationwide according to Everytown for Gun Safety. It also reflects the racial inequity of the justice system by drastically reducing consequences for homicides where white shooters kill Black victims. These cases are deemed justifiable five times more frequently than when the situation is reversed.
The effects of these decisions are reflected in Ohio’s rate of gun deaths: 15.7 per 100,000 residents. The national average is 14.4.
According to research by Everytown for Gun Safety, “If Ohio had the gun death rate of our National Leaders—the eight states with the strongest gun safety laws—we could save 13,544 lives in the next decade.”
Nearly 14,000 people could be saved if legislators in Ohio enacted gun laws that make a real difference. Instead of passing bills requiring students to watch inadequate violence prevention training videos, they should be passing laws that require background checks, training and registration of people trying to buy firearms.
How can the same legislators who say they are “pro-life” and anti-abortion reject gun laws that could save the thousands of children who are dying at the hands of guns every single day?
And if you think these laws don’t affect you and shootings only happen to people you hear about in the media, think again. It nearly happened less than 10 miles from our own school to students at Mariemont High School on Feb. 7.
We take precautions such as metal detectors to try to prevent this risk, but these efforts can only do so much. Every day students go to school fearing that today is the day it becomes their school in the news. This is unacceptable. How are we supposed to learn in an environment we don’t feel safe in?
We deserve to feel safe in our schools and classrooms.
We deserve to learn without the fear that today is the day the lockdown won’t be a drill.
We deserve to go to school in the morning without wondering if this will be the last time we see our families.
How many more people have to die before we say enough is enough?
This must stop.
We need to elect legislators who will enact laws that make our schools and communities safer. We need to vote for policies that will prevent gun violence.
We are the people these policies impact most yet most of us can’t vote, so we must make our voices heard in other ways.
We need to write to our legislators, encourage those we know who can vote to research who and what they are voting for and continue to speak up.
We must make our voices so loud that they cannot be ignored.
We must say enough.
Enough violence.
Enough bloodshed.
Enough lives lost.
ENOUGH!
