On Oct.10, 2007 a fourteen-year-old student in Cleveland Ohio shot two students and two teachers, then took his own life. On April 16, 2007, a 23 year-old Virginia tech student killed 32 students and then himself. Sept. 29, 2006 in Cazenovia Wisconsin a fifteen-year-old student shot and killed a school principal. After hearing of many recent school shootings, many parents and students wonder, “Is school a safe learning environment?”

With so many school shootings, should parents even have guns in the home? The amount of deaths as a result of school shootings is staggering. It’s really not that safe to go to school anymore because of the threat of guns. This dangerous trend began with older students from high school and college. However, recent events prove that children have also picked up on this trend, resulting in incidents like those in Cincinnati Public Schools.

With easy access to firearms, any child can just pick up a gun from home, put it in their backpack, and bring it to school. This is obviously quite dangerous for all children, not just those involved in the incident. It is difficult to pinpoint one solution to this issue.

Teens must be aware of the examples they set for children. Teens must be a role model for the younger kids, modeling responsible behavior. In addition, one easy way to prevent kids from bringing a gun to school is to limit access to firearms. It is a parent’s responsibility to lock guns up safely so children don’t have that access, which would keep schools like ours safe.