On Feb. 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on the students and faculty of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, killing 17 people and injuring 15. The shooting lasted less than five minutes, and Cruz fled the scene on foot, mixing in with the crowds of students, faculty, and staff pouring out of the school. He was apprehended when a police officer spotted him walking several miles from the site of the shooting.
Cruz used a legally bought AR-15 assault-weapon; the fact that he was able to acquire such a high-powered weapon, despite a tip made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he could be a risk, has thrust gun-control back into the national political dialogue.
While school shootings have become relatively common in the United States, the response and aftermath of Parkland is notably different. Many of the survivors, like David Hogg and Emma González, have become student activists and are now part of a large group calling on politicians for increased gun control regulation. Protests and marches are being organized all around the country in support for ending gun violence.
Issues like arming teachers, the legality of bump stocks, and the effects of mental health care are all being heavily debated. Furthermore, the Florida State Senate and House have been considering several bills aimed both at bolstering school safety and restricting gun ownership.
The issues of gun violence and school safety have reverberated on Hamilton’s campus. On Monday, Feb. 19, the Black and Latinx Student Union (BLSU), with the encouragement and support of many other student organizations, urged all students and faculty to wear black in support of the survivors of the massacre in Parkland.
At the Student Assembly meeting that night, class representative Diana Perez ’21 spoke about how the shooting personally affected her. Her emotional speech drew sympathetic reactions from other Assembly members and those watching on the livestream.
Perez lives ten minutes from Stoneman Douglas High School; one of her close friends lost loved ones in the shooting. Furthermore, she urged people to attend the BLSU-organized rally against gun violence on Friday, Feb. 23.
Nearly 100 members of the student body, faculty, and staff attended BLSU’s rally against gun violence, coming together to share their reactions through stories, poetry, and spoken word performances.
The event opened with Savannah Kelly ’21 reading the names of the seventeen people who were killed, followed by a moment of silence, before people were encouraged to speak out.
Students, faculty, and staff alike took to the stage in the Filius Events Barn to talk about their reactions to the Parkland shooting, sharing their stories and feelings with their colleagues and peers. Many expressed sadness and frustration in response to the violence and recalled similarly tragic events.
Individuals reflected on previous school shootings like the ones that took place at Columbine High School in 1999 and Virginia Tech University in 2007, talked about personal stories of shooting incidents and easy gun accessibility in their homes and neighborhoods, and overall grieved together. There was anger, sadness, confusion, but ultimately, a common theme that permeated the rally was that of hope and inspiration.
The sense of unity between students at Hamilton, and to those at Parkland, can be seen through numerous campus movements. From the signed banner and a letter-writing project organized by BLSU, where students can write letters to the Parkland community in the bookstore, to the planned event by Student Assembly to call representatives, there are still numerous ways for Hamilton students to be involved in the issues of ending gun violence.
As the country continues to examine its’ relationship with guns and mass shootings, student activism, both at Hamilton and around the country, looks to be a driving voice in the ongoing debate.
