If you haven’t heard about the 18 school shootings that we have had so far while President Donald Trump, then you need to catch up on your news. 2018 has been rough so far and these events have changed and impacted the United States and the education system.

I’m going to college to be an elementary education teacher and with all of these recent school shootings happening and everyone constantly talking about it, it’s completely devastating. There are so many other students like me who are completely dedicated to being a teacher and loving our students that we pray this would NEVER happen to our school let alone ANY school. It’s nerve-racking and heartbreaking for the future teachers, present teachers, staff, kids, parents, families, and everyone else. It’s terrifying for me because there’s always a thought or a possibility that something like a mass shooting on a school campus could happen to my school. Whether that’s a school I’ll teach at in the future or while I’m in college. I pray it never happens. But it would be utter chaos if it did.

It would be like any other normal school day. Except for this time the school is on lockdown. This time all the teachers are doing their protocol and trying to protect their students. We have fire drills, tornado drills, earthquake drills, lockdown drills but what about mass shooting drills? It’s a scary thing to deal with. Fast forward to all the police showing up to the school: the parents freaking out and wanting to know where they’re children are. The families of the teachers and staff freaking out over their family members safety. It’s all too real.

This is about gun control; I’ve heard both sides of this story. Some people think teachers should have guns in the classroom to protect their students and some people disagree. Is gun control about making it more difficult for people to get guns or making it easier? There are two sides to this and I’m in the middle observing both sides of the argument. More gun control laws would reduce death but the con of that is gun control laws do not deter crime, but that gun ownership deters crime. Will gun control laws prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking laws? Probably not. Are gun control laws such as background checks an invasion of privacy? There are so many factors to be thought of about this subject. I’m not one for politics and I like I said I’m in the middle of the two. It's time we have gun safety in America to prevent more innocent lives of adults and children from being hurt or killed.

This map shows the gun carrying policies in all 50 states as of 2017. Think about it.

I think we can speak for all education majors that the last thing you want to hear when you are sitting in a classroom trying to learn how to be a teacher is people discussing one of the worst things that you can imagine happening as a teacher. We all know it happened, and we are all aware it needs to be talked about, but rehashing something over and over, especially something as tragic as this does nothing but put people against each other. We all want better conditions for our kids, no matter what your political standing is. So, instead of posting every disturbing video, comment or picture that can possibly be found on the internet, talk to your representatives, consider the opinions of the people around you, and remind yourself what we all know but is very easy to forget: most people in this world are good.