It’s common knowledge that guns are a big deal in America.  It is literally the 2nd amendment in our Constitution. Without much regulation of gun control from the federal lens, gun violence will continue to be a prevalent aspect of our everyday lives.  The Pew Research Center estimates about 48,830 deaths occur from gun violence per year, a statistic documented in 2021, and according to the New England Journal of Medicine, 12 students are victims of such incidents each day, which totals 4,380 students each year.  Although school shootings aren’t as common to the point where they are an everyday occurrence, they still happen relatively frequently, as in 2023, there were a record-breaking 82 incidents, according to statistics provided by Statista. Clearly, the course of action to prevent incidents like this from happening is to, if not ban them altogether, make obtaining guns more laborious and lengthy.  But is it really that easy?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has documented that most guns used in school shootings are obtained from parents or other family members. The clear solution seems to be removing firearms from households and restricting them to government and law enforcement. However, the federal government is powerless when it comes to facilitating the removal of guns from households, as stated in the Second Amendment. This completely prohibits banning firearms in privately owned homes across the United States, making it impossible to simply confiscate firearms to prevent shootings.  However, the Constitution does not prohibit local governments from enforcing regulations against guns. This is where our power lies. We, as citizens, can advocate for our local governments to take a stand against gun violence. 

I and a lot of other people believe there should be more regulations set on gun use and ownership.  Even if, according to Everytown Research, big states like California and New York are ranked as the most restrictive states concerning guns, requiring extensive background checks, laws, and permits, states like Arkansas and Montana still lack even the most basic background checks, leading to the distribution of guns to even the least qualified person.  This allows easy access to firearms to everyone with all sorts of motives, including shooting up a school.  It seems like establishing more regulations on guns across the country could potentially reduce the gun mortality rate dramatically.  Nonetheless, more than half of the states in the U.S. lack the initiative to establish additional laws.  Since the federal government cannot force states to create laws against guns, it seems impossible to solve this problem.  

However, states that lack strong gun laws still have solid laws against other minor issues, like phones. Eliminating phones in schools could potentially reduce the school shooting crisis since shooters can communicate and coordinate with each other using phones.  Phones can also be a negative influence on students who use them for cyberbullying, which has been prevalent ever since the start of the internet.  In an interview where the speaker would like to remain anonymous, the speaker said, “Schools should be banning phones; it is very clearly evident that phones are the reasons causing our children’s mental health issues which result in school shootings, if we manage to take their phones away, they will have less access to certain groups where they may be getting thoughts of shooting up a school online.”  

When looking at this viewpoint, it seems valid that states are so set on banning phones over regulating guns.  Florida, for example, has issued a statewide ban that was put in effect in July.  Even if not everyone agrees with this standpoint, as another anonymous interviewee has stated, “Instead of banning phones in schools, the United States should help end school shootings by giving students access to proper counseling and therapy for students because if students have access to the help they need, this can discourage the thoughts of going through with any potential plans one may have to shoot up a school,” it seems logical that phone regulation can also be a form of regulation towards gun violence and that it seems entirely logical to eliminate phones in schools to protect our youth, both physically and mentally.  Despite all of the restrictions across the state, gun violence, not just in schools but everywhere, will continue to be a significant problem for as long as the United States exists.  There isn’t much you can do as a standalone citizen, but you could always file a complaint to your local state legislature in hopes of seeing change in the future of our country.