In light of recent events, the Lion’s Roar staff has been heavily reflecting on school shootings. More specifically, what to do in the case of a school shooting, and what our country needs to do to prevent this from happening again.

Social Media Director Kaitlin Pankowski: “I honestly think that we could have more gun control laws because somebody at a young age shouldn’t be able to buy an AR-15. It shouldn’t be so easy to walk into a school and do that. I just feel like instead of saying ‘thoughts and prayers’ we need to take action.”

Fashion Editor Kaitlyn Williams: “As far as school safety procedures I think there should be more than one officer because one officer can’t protect the whole school. As far as the school shootings, I think we really need to watch the children that are crying out for help. The ones being bullied, sitting by themselves, you notice certain things. So that should change as well.”

Staff Writer Supreet Singh: “I think that teenage kids shouldn’t be able to have more gun power than the security or even the police or the people that are meant to protect us. I don’t think there’s any need for them to own an AR-15. I don’t think guns should be completely eliminated, but it just seems ridiculous and I just don’t understand why there’s even a debate over whether someone should have that kind of gun power.”

Staff Writer Shelby Woodward: “I think it’s terrible. I don’t think it should ever happen but it’s become all too common in our country and obviously something is not working. I’m not saying “ban all guns” but something definitely needs to be improved on. Nobody should have access to an assault rifle just as an average citizen. We’ve had so many gun-related incidents just in the recent years. Something in America is not working and we need to fix it and soon. As far as school safety goes we really need to be taught about the reality of this and do the best we can to stay safe and get involved because it is our responsibility. We’re the next generation. We need to speak up and make them listen to what we’re saying.”

Clubs and Activities Editor Ethan Matthews: “I think it’s kind of disgusting that we’ve had 8 intentional school shootings so far this year. I’m not anti-gun but regular civilians don’t need automatic rifles or anything thats military grade.  Also, our safety procedures will be useless against someone who has the intent of coming into a school and killing students. Yesterday I was watching this video of a student named Justin Rivard who made a steel bar contraption that goes under the door and keeps it from opening in the case of an active shooter. It’s kind of wild that we would even need that invention, or that we would even need to have this discussion.”

Editor-In-Chief Laura Madler: I think that right now the procedures in place in public schools for shootings and intruders are scant at best. They are definitely not going to help in the case of a school shooting. If you’re just having your kids lock the door and cower in a classroom corner then you can’t protect yourself that much. We shouldn’t have to have stricter procedures for shootings, we should just restrict the risk of shootings which comes down to more gun regulations. You can’t avoid it anymore. I think something has to be done and I think it’s ridiculous that it has come to the point where you have children out there campaigning against the government for more gun regulations, and the fact that actual adults and members of the government are chastising these kids and saying, “Oh, they’re just doing this for attention, or they’re being sponsored by some liberal organization.” They’re trying to devalue what they’re doing and very disheartening to see.”