Today we grieve another school shooting for the four-hundredth sixteenth time in modern memory.[1] We grieve the senseless violence that has taken the lives of innocent children and teachers. We grieve the lifelong traumatic experiences now imprinted in young survivors, parents, and community members. We grieve over the distorted reality that led a fourteen-year-old boy to commit a horrific act in his community. We grieve the tragedy of another preventable crime in America unleashed against our children and communities from among our own.

On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, just as schools across the nation were returning to their regular fall schedules following the Labor Day holiday, one community was forever changed. Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia now joins a list of over 400 schools nationwide since the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. What seemed unfathomable then has evolved into an unprecedented crisis that grips families today with merited fear. 

At an afternoon press conference, Sherrif Jud Smith of Barrow County, Georgia, looked past the live television cameras and reporters before him with bewilderment and said, “I never imagined in my career speaking to the media regarding the sheer evil that happened here today.”[2] He went on to describe how his family are proud members of the community and his own children attend the public school system. At that moment, he wasn’t speaking on behalf of law enforcement, he was speaking as a father, husband, and citizen. He may have woken up on Wednesday and gone to work as Sherrif Smith, but behind the microphones and under his badge, he was still Mr. Smith. He too seemed to be coming to terms with the horror that suddenly arrived in his county that hundreds of other schools and police departments have already experienced themselves. 

The data, unfortunately, is now on the side of fate and predictability. According to the advocacy and action group Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been 1,300 gun violence incidents at schools nationwide that claimed over 400 lives in the last decade alone.[3] The growing trend in school shootings has been well-known by every law enforcement agency and district across the country. It’s why schools regularly review and practice active shooter drills during school hours, spend thousands of dollars a year on increased security measures, hire additional armed security guards or resource officers, install metal detectors, and research best practices for surviving an active shooting if or when one occurs in their classroom.

In 2013 in response to the growing trends of school shootings, I was asked to partner with a local police department and school district to produce and direct a first-of-its-kind training video for lockdown drills in public schools. It was initially used for the school district and later distributed nationwide. Through this eye-opening experience, I was able to see the inner workings of multiple police agencies alongside school administrators and teachers collaborating to save as many innocent lives as possible under horrific situations. The video was in high demand and became a standard training resource for over a thousand districts. Our goal was to alleviate the fears of educators, students, and parents with informative and actionable advice. It was a big undertaking and I’m grateful for the talent, dedication, and commitment that everyday community members have to keeping those under their watch safe and secure.

However, as we learned again at the start of a new school year, training videos and drills are insufficient in saving lives from gun violence in our communities. Such solutions are only reactions to a deeper problem that can and must be solved by all of us. Building safer schools and communities is everyone’s responsibility. 

We must resolve to be outraged over the collective amnesia, apathy, and political stalemates that cloud our ability to build a safer and more hopeful future for every child, parent, teacher, and community member across our nation. Gun violence is a stain on our society that continues to grow worse as access increases and regulation decreases. The facts are well known to those who wish to see them. Firearms and assault weapons play an outsized role in enabling violence that repeatedly ends in murder and mass casualty events.[4]

In an imaginary world where the “bad guys” are easily recognizable from the “good guys”, guns take a neutral place in the conversation. They become a tool that gets the job done. But that world only exists in movies, video games, and comic books. Today, even the good ones, the quiet ones, the nice ones, the innocent-looking ones, and the unsuspecting ones are wielding mass-casualty weapons of war. As our hearts ache, our collective thinking on the issue needs to be reconnected to our grief, not shut off from it.

For our future to be filled with the promise of life and liberty that our country cherishes, everyone should be free to live safely and securely without the threat of gun violence in their communities. For our future to be hopeful and matched with fearlessness in the eyes of our children, we must learn to experience compassion for others and embrace the courage that God gives each of us to make meaningful changes. Human history is filled with stories of building a better and brighter future for everyone because it’s who we are created to be.

For thousands of years, people have recognized themselves as moral beings with intrinsic value and deeply believed in stewarding the precious gift that lives within each other for eternity. In light of this, our most reasonable and logical response is already before us. We must refuse to accept gun violence as a normal way of American life. Because when we do, we are giving up the fight for a better tomorrow and the eternal promises of God.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/school-shootings-database/ 

[2] Sherrif Jud Smith, Barrow County, Georgia. MSNBC, September 4, 2024.

[3] https://everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-grounds/

[4] Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg, American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence, 2023: 77-78.