When you read the news and see a school shooting has occurred, does it surprise anymore? In 2015, there was an average of one shooting in a school or college campus per week in the United States(per ABC News). Instances like Columbine, Sandy Hook, and what happened at Virginia Tech in 2007 lead the public to an important question: are public schools nationwide safe enough? Many people across America have voiced their opinions on how these shootings should be prevented, but among them are four big ideas. These ideas are to strengthen gun laws, improve school security, improve mental health care, and to arm teachers or administrators.

In my opinion, strengthening gun laws is not the way to go. It restricts the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Restricting gun laws for all makes it harder for law-abiding citizens to legally acquire a firearm. Many of the shooters are young and use guns owned by their parents, who are law abiding citizens. There is also a large black market for weapons. If a shooter is willing to murder so many students in cold blood, then I do not think it makes a difference on whether they get the gun legally or illegally to them.

The second method, to improve school security with metal detectors and additional police officers, while it might sound good at first, is also not the best course of action. With schools in North Carolina barely scraping by with the funds they have, how would they be able to pay for additional security? One method could be to increase property tax(which funds public schools), but this would not go by well with citizens. No one would want to pay extra taxes.

I personally think this idea is stupid in itself, but the third idea is to arm teachers and administrators. What if the teacher has a bad day? Would they go crazy and shoot a student for disobedience in the classroom? This would also make it easier for students to get their hands on a firearm, and harm or kill others.

I think the best solution to the problem is to improve mental health care. Most school shooters have a history of mental illness and did not have access to treatment. Take the Sandy Hook shooter for example, Adam Lanza, who had a developmental disorder and was “completely untreated in the years before the shooting” for anxiety and OCD, per the state report. I think this issue and countless others could have been avoided if mental health care was improved. Improving mental health care would dramatically decrease the amount of school shootings in the United States and dramatically increase the safety of our schools.

Sources: abcnews.go.com/US/school-shootings-columbine-numbers/story?id=36833245