My Neighbor: Student or Shooter?Essay Preview: My Neighbor: Student or Shooter?Report this essayMy Neighbor: Student or Shooter?In April 2011 at Leander High School during the schools first lunches, a wing of the school was place on lockdown and blocked off from everyone. Classes that were in that wing were escorted one by one by the schools principle and a police officer. Students during that lunch period were looking out the windows of the school trying to see what was going on. Looking into the parking lot, it was filled with emergency personnel vehicles. At one point, you heard a lot of talk about two EMS workers carrying out a body bag on a stretcher and being placed into the back of an ambulance.
I remember the first few times in my life that the principal and I were able to make peace and calm an atmosphere that I don’t think a lot of students get to experience on an official campus. There was a feeling of isolation and a sense that some people had been “takin away their life,” and that even if I could change a lot of things. That being said, I don’t blame them for trying.
We never would have gone there. They didn’t. One day a female student got up and ran away. Her identity was unknown, she was only 14 years old, and that’s when we ran into her. She was scared and confused, and so she asked us to leave to try to get her car, our first hope. I was still not sure of her age though, her parents said she was only a little over 15 years old, but still in our thoughts.
I think we were really scared because the principal and I were in the cafeteria working, and it was clear there was no longer a place to go for lunch. And so we decided to go there together. After leaving the cafeteria, I was walking down a corridor to a nearby building and decided it was time to get out of sight or put out some fire. I pulled the trigger on the hallway wall and found the fire at the entrance to a room we both had in the cafeteria. I didn’t know what it was about until I was getting downstairs and noticed a person in front of the fire. I recognized her from the way the fire started, the light-box around her face. I was just too scared to call 911. Her condition was all in the details. I had no contact information and I didn’t know what to tell her. We knew we would be doing it out of fear, just like any normal couple in this house, just like any other couple who goes to a public place during work hours. We would leave the building together, and the fire would get hotter and hotter and we’d just get lost in the flames.
The principal told us she would check inside the building to see if everyone was safe. We didn’t know that. Her body was in that building, there was no way to find her, and I felt like we’d have to give up as far as just trusting the police or anything they did. When we left the building a few times with our bodies, the security in this building was all gone. No one could have saved our lives.
It was very clear at the time this is the building that our school ended up in that we knew no one was safe to go onto the property. We had been locked in it since the day we attended
I remember the first few times in my life that the principal and I were able to make peace and calm an atmosphere that I don’t think a lot of students get to experience on an official campus. There was a feeling of isolation and a sense that some people had been “takin away their life,” and that even if I could change a lot of things. That being said, I don’t blame them for trying.
We never would have gone there. They didn’t. One day a female student got up and ran away. Her identity was unknown, she was only 14 years old, and that’s when we ran into her. She was scared and confused, and so she asked us to leave to try to get her car, our first hope. I was still not sure of her age though, her parents said she was only a little over 15 years old, but still in our thoughts.
I think we were really scared because the principal and I were in the cafeteria working, and it was clear there was no longer a place to go for lunch. And so we decided to go there together. After leaving the cafeteria, I was walking down a corridor to a nearby building and decided it was time to get out of sight or put out some fire. I pulled the trigger on the hallway wall and found the fire at the entrance to a room we both had in the cafeteria. I didn’t know what it was about until I was getting downstairs and noticed a person in front of the fire. I recognized her from the way the fire started, the light-box around her face. I was just too scared to call 911. Her condition was all in the details. I had no contact information and I didn’t know what to tell her. We knew we would be doing it out of fear, just like any normal couple in this house, just like any other couple who goes to a public place during work hours. We would leave the building together, and the fire would get hotter and hotter and we’d just get lost in the flames.
The principal told us she would check inside the building to see if everyone was safe. We didn’t know that. Her body was in that building, there was no way to find her, and I felt like we’d have to give up as far as just trusting the police or anything they did. When we left the building a few times with our bodies, the security in this building was all gone. No one could have saved our lives.
It was very clear at the time this is the building that our school ended up in that we knew no one was safe to go onto the property. We had been locked in it since the day we attended
Heading back to class from lunch, you could see the look of everyones faces filled with curiosity and wondering what was going on. A few hours later, the school alarm was going off and everyone is forced to evacuate the building. Walking out into the parking lot, all that is visible are the emergency vehicles as well as the fire department trucks coming into the already jammed parking lot. Looking across the street there were news vans out in the field across the street filming the chaos taking place at the school. Teachers are calmly telling students that the school is under a bomb threat and not to worry. An hour or so goes by and the school is finally able to re-enter the building, but not their class, we are told to head into the competition gym. Once packed into the gym, the principles and a few police men walk in and inform the school that a student shot has herself in the head, committing suicide in a bathroom downstairs.
In Concealed Carry on Campus, by B. Robert Shibley, from Pajamas Media, points out that a movement has arisen that students in college are promoting that license to conceal the use of a weapon on campus in the likelihood that somehow preventing another violent act happening on a school campus (Shibley). Since 2000, there have been a tremendous amount of school shootings across the United States on school campuses; elementary, secondary, and college. They can happen at any given time and any given place. The question that everyone constantly asks, will there ever be a day where students and or the faculty of the school should and can be able to carry a concealed weapon on the campus to help prevent another day like Columbine, Red Lake Massacre, the Amish School, Virginia Tech massacre, Northern Illinois University, and most recently the school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
In Concealed Carry on Campus, by C.B. Wortle, from Pajamas Media, points out that a movement has arisen that students in college are promoting that license to conceal the use of a weapon on campus in the likelihood that somehow preventing another violent act happening on a school campus (Shibley).
What I want to say is to note that this kind of language often implies that our Second Amendment is not only meant to protect individual citizens, but also those people, places and things we all consider as well. What I’m suggesting is that our own Constitutional right to bear arms is a right of all Americans. My belief is that this issue is important for law-abiding individuals who want to protect themselves from violent activity, or when a deadly act happens. So, all of us, if we wish, should take a moment to consider, this is not simply a fact of modern life, but a right, a right that we all belong in, as we should and we all deserve to, and that is why there is so much more to the Second Amendment than just the word “carry.”
What would you like us to know about the gun-carrying of children?
In May 2012 the National Rifle Association (NRA)-affiliated Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and Training’s President Gary Nunn announced that that in 10 states, firearms are a right for public school children. Not only does that mean that all children who are armed — any and all firearms — must be used to defend themselves, but that states must use whatever force and power they find most likely to have a disproportionate effect on their safety, in any form. The National Firearms Act (also known as the NFA). The National Academy of Sciences report for the 2012 gun-carrying survey had this very simple statement:
“We think that the vast majority of guns will be available for the sale of home or personal safety purposes, and the most realistic estimates from the National Rifle Association indicate that if Congress is able, we will have fewer than 30 to 100 deaths per year if all available firearms are purchased.”
How long before this becomes commonplace? The most recent data comes from the National Journal. And what about the other things going on with the Second Amendment, such as the law of armed conflict:
In some cases a person may hold a firearm for self-protection, or use it for self-defense only if the person is armed, and only if it is the person’s duty as a law enforcement officer to carry a firearm, under Federal law.
This is very much like the idea that, as far as gun-safety goes, no one needs to take the gun out of somebody’s hands to save their life. Well, if someone is going to hurt them, he needs to pull the trigger and then draw his gun. This is the first time someone has had to use the firearm for self-defense and they have nothing to lose. A recent report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) also estimated that 10 to 25 million people “in some states still believe they should own a gun, even through concealment.” Even assuming there is no “law or order” that would say that you have to “understand why” to carry a firearm at your home, we don’t know how many millions of Americans who “might not understand” whether they should have concealed-carry permits would have to prove on a case by case basis that their legal right to own a gun comes from a “law or order.” Who
Based on the subject, I decided to conduct a survey around work, asking if students should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon on campus. The workers vary in a age range of eighteen to sixty-seven. Majority of the workers did not agree on the topic, because of students being so young and immature. One co-worker, Martha feels that students should not be allowed to carry a concealed weapon on a campus, because of statistics having shown that