If you’ve been reading the news at all in the last two weeks, you know that the country was rocked with not one, not two, but three university shootings in the past few days. On October 1, Christopher Harper-Mercer, a 26 year old student, began shooting at Umpqua Community College which is located near Roseburg, Oregon. He killed nine people – an assistant professor and eight students – and injured nine others. He lost his life in a shootout with police shortly after the spree.
Just eight days later, 18 year old Steven Jones open fired on four students at Northern Arizona University, located in Flagstaff, Arizona. The freshman killed one student and wounded three others. Jones was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and the victims were members of Delta Chi. According to authorities, Jones and the victims were involved in some sort of altercation before Jones proceeded to grab a handgun from his car and begin shooting. His bail has been set at $2 million and he is now awaiting trial.
Hours after the shooting at NAU, a shooting occurred outside of a Texas Southern University housing complex killing one student and wounding another. The university was placed on lockdown and two men were detained in connection with the shooting. The police recently released the two men but the university has implemented stronger safety measures including an 11 p.m. curfew, the addition of more patrol shifts for campus safety officials, and a mandatory sign-in and sign-out policy at all student dormitories.
While these university shootings have dominated headlines for the past two weeks, they are unfortunately not the first to do so. This year alone, 52 school shootings (21 of which have occurred at universities) have claimed the lives of 30 people and have left 53 injured (rt.com). These numbers are startling, to say the least. According to Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, it is illegal to carry a firearm of school. Many people do not think that this legislation is not doing enough to prevent school shootings since many of these killing sprees have occurred in gun-free zones. However, as is seen lately in the presidential debates, people still remain unsure how to go about gun control.