CThe first school shooting to ever take place was in Pennsylvania in 1764.  10 people were killed.

Over the course of the 19th century, there were 37 shootings in America.  31 people were killed.

In the 20th century there were 228 shootings and 307 people were killed.  

So far into the 21st century, there have been 219 incidents of people coming into a school with a gun and opening fire on innocent teachers, students, and faculty.  This has resulted in the loss of 276 lives.

In American history, there have been 484 school shootings.  We have lost 614 lives to irresponsible gun owners.

At a small high school in Littleton, Colorado, two young men, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, set out to bomb their high school.  When the bomb failed to detonate, they turned to plan B. They grabbed their guns, put on their black trench coats, and walked inside.  They wounded 21 individuals, and killed a total of 13 before turning the guns on themselves and committing suicide. This all happened on the morning of April 20th, 1999.  

At just 17 years old, these two killers made a straw purchase of two shotguns from one of their friends named Mark Manes.  Manes was just a senior in high school. All of three of these boys were supposed to have their bright futures ahead of them.  They could have gone off to college, got married, had children, and grew old with their family. They could have created a successful business and become a millionaire.  They could have travelled the world, gone on adventures, made memories, and met so many great people and experience so many great things. But all of that was ruined when they decided to go into Columbine High School and shoot so many innocent lives.  

Or were they all so innocent?  In a journal entry written by Eric Harris, he said “I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don’t … say, ‘Well that’s your fault,’ because it isn’t, you people had my phone number, and I asked and all, but no. No no no don’t let the weird-looking Eric KID come along.”  

Dylan Klebold also said a few choice words about how their peers were always making fun of them and excluding them from hanging out with them.  

This is what people do not understand about gun violence: Sure, you can blame it on the fact that it is legal for teenagers to purchase a gun, and you can blame it on the fact that there is no psychological evaluation that takes place before the purchase.  And those are all legitimate reasons to be upset and I am not saying that those are wrong. I really do think that there should be a better process to help decrease the amount of shootings. But have you ever stopped to think about how you treat other people and how that may affect them?  

Instead of eating lunch the same way you normally do every day, why don’t you invite that person that seems to always sit alone?  I’m sure it would make their day because they would see that someone finally noticed them. Or maybe even be partners with the person in your biology class that always seems to have to do labs by themselves.  I bet they would like to have a nice person to look at bacteria with. You could even go on a run with the person on the track team that you noticed usually runs alone. I bet they would like someone to talk to even though they are probably out of breath.

The government isn’t the only one to blame here, guys.  Let’s all do our part and be kind to everyone because you never know what someone is going through.