Gun Laws And 2a
A shooter terrorized my university. This is the cost of inaction. | Opinion
A shooter terrorized my university. This is the cost of inaction. | Opinion
📅
✍️By ZRIntel Editorial Team📍Providence, Rhode Island
On December 13, the community that I love most was shattered. Attending class, eating meals, seeing friends ‒ nothing at Brown University will ever be the same.
As I sheltered in place from an active shooter, first in a grocery store and then in a friend’s off-campus house, hundreds of texts flew through my phone. I saw videos of students bleeding out on the ground, just steps from my dorm. Friends were barricaded in tiny rooms with no water, food or access to a bathroom.
With helicopters thundering overhead and sirens blaring throughout the neighborhood, all I could think about was the victims’ families, waiting nervously to hear about their loved ones, not knowing they were about to receive the worst possible news: The gunman killed two students and injured nine that Saturday.
I finally fell asleep at 4 a.m., still under a shelter-in-place order. I awoke, after a restless few minutes of sleep, to a 5:42 a.m. text from Brown’s emergency management system telling us that police had ended the shelter-in-place order for Brown’s campus but were still actively investigating and maintaining a perimeter around key buildings. This only fueled more confusion. Initially, we had been told a suspect was in custody, only to learn later that it was no longer the case.
Walking back to my dorm room that Sunday morning, streets empty and ground freshly coated with snow, was a surreal experience. Reporters scurrying around. Caution tape everywhere. Passersby with long, sober faces.
On December 18, authorities found the body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, in a New Hampshire self-storage unit. Neves Valente is the suspected gunman in the Brown shooting and another two days later that left an MIT professor dead. Now that the apparent shooter is no longer a threat, Brown and the city of Providence can finally take a deep breath. But friends who live in Providence tell me the community remains shaken to the core.
We know what we have to do to end gun violence. Why won't we?
Part of me wants to ask why we keep allowing guns to terrorize the places we love. But having been an advocate in the movement to prevent gun violence for the past four years, I know the answer. It’s because we have a gun industry that continues to prioritize its next billion dollars at the expense of our public safety.
Young people like myself and my friends at Brown continue to have our voices silenced when it comes to what needs to be done around gun violence. I say, with every fiber in my being, this has to end now.
We are the wealthiest nation in the world. We pride ourselves on upholding freedom to the greatest extent. Yet my peers and I will never be free; not if gun violence continues to be the leading cause of death for young people, not when we have more mass shootings than days in a year in this country, and certainly not while politicians can get away with taking a check from the gun lobby ‒ even after fatal school shootings ‒ and be paid off to do nothing.
Young people like me are tired of being pawns in a political game when our lives are quite literally at stake. Politicians can act with our interests in mind. In Australia, following an antisemitic terrorist attack on December 14, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet called for the strengthening of gun safety legislation immediately.
Our president’s response to the shooting at my school? “Things can happen.” This is beyond unacceptable.
When will enough be enough?
It’s why I’ve devoted so much of my time to this cause. Working with Team ENOUGH, a youth-led organization affiliated with Brady and committed to ensuring we are the generation that ends gun violence, I’ve had countless meetings on Capitol Hill to advocate for policies that protect young people like me.
I got involved in advocacy after a shooting scare at my Virginia high school. Now that my college community, my home away from home, has been so transformed by this gun violence epidemic, I’m only more motivated to demand action.
We need a more responsible culture surrounding gun ownership, and that starts with all firearm owners making a point to store their weapons securely – keeping them locked, unloaded and away from ammo.
While the Trump administration loosens enforcement of gun safety laws at the federal level, states can take charge. And as federal funding for gun violence prevention research continues to be slashed, philanthropists and community partners should pitch in and help fill that gap. Everyone from parents and doctors to Hollywood film directors can take everyday action.
To paraphrase Maya Angelou, we can be changed by what happened to us, but we refuse to be reduced by it. I know our Brown community will find the resilience to come back stronger than ever. I implore the rest of the country to join our fight in ensuring that no student, no child, no human being ever has to experience this sort of violence again. It’s imperative to remember that we are always stronger together.
We all have a role to play. Reach out to your representatives. Join a local chapter of a gun violence prevention organization. Channel your anger, your sadness, your discomfort, into action. Vote for gun violence prevention champions in every election you can.
As one person, it’s easy to feel powerless. But when we band together, our collective voices become impossible to ignore, and our shared purpose will help secure a future where our communities can finally live without fear of being shot and killed.
The events at Brown University underscore a troubling trend in the U.S.: the persistent gun violence that indiscriminately claims young lives and disrupts educational environments. As debates shift to gun regulations, what is becoming clear is that the cultural normalization of firearms exacerbates these crises. Will this incident galvanize true legislative change, or will it fade into the background of political maneuvering? The nation awaits action for the sake of our students' safety.