In the year 2022, Texas had over 55 mass shootings, making 2022 one of the most significant years for gun violence in a decade. Now, in only the first months of 2023, there have been over 19 mass shootings.
“America is known for shootings in both schools and in general,” said Alyssa Hernandez, a junior at Communications Arts High School. “After a while, people stop caring because they’re used to it, and because it doesn’t affect them.”
Mental health issues have been vastly studied in relation to and connected to mass shootings. Despite the state being known to have a large amount of gun violence, Texas is ranked 51 out of all 51 states for access to mental health care.
“Our mental health system in the U.S. is completely broken,” said Bettina Melton, a U.S. History teacher. “Because Texas is so conservative, they put less money and less attention into the system, especially in education. Most students’ mental health problems develop in their young adult years, and no one is getting to the root of the problem.”
While the young adults that Melton describes lack access to mental health care, they can however access a gun. Since 2021, people ages 18 and older can purchase a gun and people aged 21 or older can carry a gun without a license in the state of Texas. They are allowed to be armed in public places, such as the Texas State Capitol, and anywhere with no visible sign prohibiting the carrying of a gun.
Even with a requirement for a license, people can still buy guns with no background check, no license, and no training.
“You can go to a gun show and purchase a gun with no background checks, or you can purchase a gun online with no evidence that you’re fit to have one,” Melton said.
Along with the easy access to guns, there are many types of guns available to the public such as automatic and assault rifles. These weapons can be purchased as easily as a handgun.
“If you feel like you need the protection of a gun, you should be allowed to have it,” mother of Alyssa Hernandez and former Robb Elementary student Miriam Hernandez said. “However, no one needs something that can kill ten people in five seconds, only something that can get you to safety.”
As a former Robb Elementary student from Uvalde, Texas, Hernandez shared insight on how she dealt with the devastating shooting that took place at her old school last May. Now a kindergarten teacher, Hernandez heard the news during the school day as many others did.
“I remember being in my classroom and one of my colleagues came by and asked me if I knew what was going on. I checked my phone and logged onto Facebook, since it was already on Facebook live, and I was just shocked,” Hernandez said. “At that point I didn’t know how many children had been killed, and it was even worse since a lot of my friends’ kids went to Robb. I texted my family group chat and when I saw that they were okay and knew where their children were, I just felt so much relief.”
Guns affect people for the rest of their lives. The trauma that they face will never be erased from their minds.
“There are kids who went to Robb that can’t go back to school,” Hernandez said. “The thought of having to face the place where their classmates, their friends, were murdered makes them so upset that a lot of kids switched to online school. Some might never go to an in-person school again.”
Even people who don’t experience gun violence first-hand still have to deal with the consequences and the mental damage it causes.
“My mom was crying for days,” Alyssa Hernandez said. “We couldn’t bring [the shooting] up, it was just so hard to deal with. We also went up to Uvalde to help with memorials and to help give back to the community there just to see their faces, and it was really nice to see the community come together like that.”
Other examples of how people are forever affected can be found on almost every social media platform – from TikToks about how the siblings of creators were shot due to gun violence to how creators themselves have been victims in school shootings. School shootings have become so common that threats of guns on campus don’t even make the front page.
“I think guns are only needed to protect yourself in certain situations,” said Aika Meleus, a Junior at Communications Arts High School. “But there is no protection if everyone has access to a gun. If no one had one, no one would need one.”
Guns protect people less than gun laws do. There needs to be less access to deadly firearms, more background checks, required training, and fewer places that are allowed to sell guns. If this doesn’t happen, then the number of mass shootings will just continue to grow every year, and the amount of lives ruined will rise with it.