This morning in the dining hall I was watching the news cover the Odessa, Texas mass shooting and thought to myself, "How does this keep happening?" Ten hours later I get a text from my school saying that there was an active shooter on Villanova's Campus.
The fear of the unknown was terrifying; when the text was sent out, the student center I was in became silent before we all stood up to quickly find a secure location. We were directed into a room that had no windows and I was further pushed into an office with 20 other people. My body was shaking and I couldn't even think straight: what should I do? Who should I text? Where are my friends?
As we quietly huddled together, everyone on campus was receiving texts from the school saying that the police were sweeping the building the threat came from and we should all stay put and barricade the doors. The building the alert mentioned happened to be the dorm I lived in last year, making the situation even more personal. Text updates continued to come from Public Safety alerting us that there was no indication of shots fired, but to continue to remain where we were. Eventually, the police confirmed that there was no danger of an active shooter on campus and we were cleared to move.
Today Villanova got lucky, there was no active shooter but there just as easily could have been. The school reported that a student heard a loud noise that was believed to be gunshots, causing the alert to be released. It's crazy that we live in a world where when we hear a loud noise we think it could be gunshots, that when I saw the alert on my phone part of me thought, "Why am I not surprised?", that for some of my classmates this wasn't their first experience with gun violence.
The gun laws need to change. How many mass shootings and gun threats will it take for the laws to be changed? How many more people need to experience the fear we felt today? Politicians need to realize the danger we are facing here in America and make a change. Fast. Today Villanova got lucky, but that isn't the outcome of every situation similar to this. Help be the change and spread the message of changing the gun laws in America. The push is needed.
