I don’t think I’ll ever get used to headlines like these, “3 dead, 8 injured in shooting at Michigan high school.” Yet lawmakers, gun manufacturers and the NRA do. 

We can list tragedy after tragedy like Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, but can’t list any laws or regulations that were put in place to prevent shootings like these from happening again. The obvious culprit for any inaction on an epidemic such as this has usually been NRA lobbyists who wreak havoc on Congress and politics in general. But during the past two years a new source has emerged, COVID-19. 

The pandemic, with all it’s lockdowns, health concerns and vaccinations, has heavily overshadowed a forgotten issue in gun violence. All of the cases and deaths in early 2020, forced the U.S. to shift the focus in schools from protecting kids from guns to protecting kids from a novel virus. Such a shift was imperative at the time and it many places still is, but with many school districts choosing to return to in-person learning this past September it’s time again to split our focus on protecting kids in school. 

Revisiting safety plans for students and teachers and emphasizing  administration conduct when it comes to school shootings would be a huge step in combating horrific shootings, and may have prevented the Oxford shooting from happening at all. Oxford High School’s administration saw vivid warning signs with the gunman, Ethan Crawley, caught scrolling online looking for ammunition, yet chose not to search his backpack following an emergency meeting with his parents . Such a misstep proved lethal as Crawley left the meeting, returned to his classroom and opened fire on his classmates. 

Questions will be asked of both sides. How much accountability falls upon the parents? What could the administration have done differently? But this ultimate question will be asked in the end, Will we continue to see these, family crushing, mass shootings with repeated inaction in Congress?