Steven Lippmann, M.D.

…everybody says it should stop … how can we work to seek remediation?

People generally profess to be child advocates; of course, that applies mostly to their kids and grandchildren. And yes, they want all students to be safe, away from firearm dangers at school. So, what can Americans do to stop school-time gun-shot tragedies?

Shootings of children during school have increased in frequency. Just in 2024, there reportedly were 83 firearm shootings in US schools. That tragically resulted in about 38 kids being shot dead and approximately 116 wounded. 

Frightening firearm incidents during school hours even without a shooting are also occurring more often. This includes several different but damaging gun-threats, warnings, and/or finding a firearm in the building. Many years ago, such happenings were rare, but such occurrences have dramatically escalated since the COVID-19 pandemic. In schools each one of the three years, 2022, 2023, and 2024, gun incidents occurred close to 340 times annually. These happenings induce anxiety for kids, lots of parental worries, and are upsetting for everybody. Even without an incident in one’s own school, just knowing about the risk, hampers education. Beyond that, drive-by shootings occur and even during afternoon or later meetings or gatherings, like for clubs or sport practices and games.

School students encounter these concerns while adults send kids off to school and rarely experience these dangers. Grown-ups may not even be able to imagine what it is like to be in school or witness how all school functions are compromised.  Despite these shootings and concerns, a governmental effort to diminish this scourge is less evident.

While everybody agrees this is a problem, what is actually accomplished toward addressing this terrible situation? Voters control our government. What should we do?

Hopefully, there are things that might mitigate school violence. How about starting by discussing possible changes with your peers or similarly minded people? Follow this up with contacts, phone calls, letters to your newspaper, and lobbying all levels of government leaders to work at reducing school gun violence. This might include congresspeople, legislators, mayors, governors, and all other administrators at schools, community, state, and the nation. Hopefully, more people become active to benefit our children and everybody.