Mass shootings are here to stay; Is there anything we can do?

We have an embarrassing mass shooting problem in this country. The question about mass shootings is no longer if we’ll be affected by one but rather when we’ll be affected by one.

I chose to write about gun control for Eagle News in early September. Initially, I was going to write about the Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia and how FGCU would react to something similar. However, since then, over twenty people have been shot in a mass shooting in Birmingham.

Alabama is so far away from Florida, so FGCU students shouldn’t have to worry, right?

Aubrey Rogers High School in Naples was placed on lockdown within the same timeframe as the Birmingham shooting. Children were texting their parents, thinking they were going to get shot and killed like so many other kids have.

Less than a week later, the Imagine School in North Port was placed on lockdown because someone found gun ammunition on a school bus.

Regardless of if you are reading this in 2024 or 2026, there was probably a notable mass shooting in the past two months.

We no longer live in a world where we can pretend that we’re going to stop mass shootings. All we have left is to hope that we’re as prepared as possible when it happens.

William Horn is an officer with the University Police Department at FGCU. He has been with UPD for seven years and said in an interview that the university is prepared for active shooter situations.

“If we have an active shooter, dispatch is notified right away,” Horn said. “Hopefully, we will get multiple calls, and they will let us know where they’re coming from. Where the individual is, we’ll respond.”

Yet, just last April, an FGCU student was arrested after being accused of making online threats of a mass shooting. UPD, multiple sheriff’s offices and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force worked together to arrest the individual.

In response to the incident, Horn said that UPD is aware of online threats and has plans to address them.

“If a person makes an online threat, there is a program that the university uses. It’s called Fullintel, and it disseminates the information throughout the whole university to the administrators, including UPD,” Horn said.

Likewise, Horn said parents also have a responsibility to ensure students don’t end up as mass shooters.

“The parents need to take the first step to keep kids away from that issue,” he said. “If you have parents that don’t care, that student might think that it’s okay to do whatever they want to do, but if you have parents that are protective and try to educate their children and be consistent with what they’re telling them, it’ll usually keep them from getting themselves on the wrong track.”

As for stopping someone before they decide to grab a weapon, Horn said we can’t stop that.

“Anyone could put anything in their backpack or a suitcase or even in hand and carry it on campus. There’s truly no way to stop that,” Horn said. “All you could do is educate the people, let them know that we do have rules and regulations, that you are not allowed to have any weapons on campus, that if you do get caught with it, it is a felony.”

Anyone can indeed put a weapon in their bag and ruin lives. It shouldn’t be that easy.

If lawmakers truly believe mass shootings are a result of mental health crises, then they would advocate for affordable health care for all. If lawmakers think gun control measures should pass, they should advocate for them. Yet, lawmakers continuously fail to do either of these things.

Addressing gun violence can be anything from making sure domestic abusers aren’t allowed access to weapons to emphasize gun safety from a young age.

Too often, when discourse about gun control happens, one side talks about how you shouldn’t ban guns, and then they bring up the city of Chicago.

Though I haven’t said anything about banning guns, someone will read this and inevitably think everyone is coming for their weapons. If the government is coming for your guns, they’re really playing the long game.

Another issue is when people talk about gun control, people say it’s too soon to talk about control. I’m writing this on Sep. 26.

That means we are:

• Five days removed from the Birmingham shooting that killed four and injured 17
• 22 days removed from the Apalachee School shooting that killed four people and wounded nine
• We’re 2,987 days removed from the Club Blu Shooting in Fort Myers that killed two and injured at least 14.
• We’re 3,260 days removed from the Zombicon shooting in Fort Myers, where one was killed and five people were hurt
• We’re 4,305 days removed from the Sandy Hook School Shooting that killed 26 people with 20 of those people being children.
  

If someone knows the correct number of days between mass shootings and action on gun control. Please. Let us know.