April 10 is the 100th calendar day of 2023. As of April 10, there have been 146 mass shootings in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
In 2022 and 2021, Georgia’s 11th District, which includes Kennesaw, reported 33 and 32 gun-violence related deaths respectively. As of April 10, there have been six deaths reported this year that are linked to gun violence in the district. These are listed as six separate incidents, none of which occurred in Kennesaw.
Six Kennesaw State students provided insight into their views and experiences with gun violence and proposed reforms.
Abbie Rice, Junior Media & Entertainment major
“I have not had any personal experiences with gun violence; however, I participated in numerous lockdown drills during K-12 schooling. During one drill in high school, we were in the theatre for theater class. The speakers for the announcements do not play in the theater so we could not hear that the lockdown was a drill. One student ran in saying there was a lockdown happening. We all believed it was real and ran into the dressing rooms, but none of them locked. We had the boys pushing against the doors just to hold them shut. It was a scary experience that showed how schools are not prepared for situations like that.”
Aneles Sanchez, Sophomore Criminal Justice major
“As someone who has a sibling in elementary school, I spend every waking moment worrying about their safety and well-being while at school. No, their teacher isn’t armed with a gun and it is NOT the answer to end gun violence. I’m tired of pro-gun people claiming that the solution to gun violence is more guns. When has that ever worked?”
Carson DeMoss, Junior Media and Entertainment major
“The gun violence in America is strictly an American problem. The amount of guns we have and the lack of any desire from one of the two parties to put any regulation on guns leads to zero solutions. I’ve become numb to shootings to the point where if there’s a shooting I think it’s awful but it’s not the stop and watch in horror that it was even five years ago. I’ve accepted that currently nothing will be done to combat school shootings if dying children isn’t enough incentive I’m not sure what is.”
Jett Sutton, Freshman Art major
“Living in America the threat of gun violence is a constant especially growing up in Atlanta. Shootings happened alot and it does just feel like luck some nights whether or not youll end up on the other side of a gun. Ive been robbed two times at gun point in my life, both times it was someone who seemed to need the money more than I did anyways, I just wish people weren’t pushed so far by society to have to do that. I think guns are just a means to an end. It makes death easy and facilitates alot of violence, but as long as America operates the way it does, and the people still feel like life is just as unfair and troubling, the problem wont go away.”
Mason Cochran, Senior Software Engineering major
“If you claim it is a mental health issue, then do something productive about it instead of being a coward, and talking about something you have no intent of working to improve. There quite literally are a myriad of things we could do to lessen gun deaths while preserving the second amendment people claim to care so much about, but currently only one political party in the US is willing to even care about the issue.”
Tyler Russ, Junior Journalism major
“Besides going to school with the threat of school shootings being present, I also work at the Home Depot on Barrett Pkwy. Not long ago there was a shooting down the road at the Walmart, and I was at work wondering what happened and whether our store was next. Everyone in our store was kinda nervous the rest of the day until the police announced everything was clear.”
