It’s a horrible thing to say, but on Thursday, October 1st, another mass shooting took place – this time on Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The shooter was a 26 year-old white male who took his own life after killing eight students and one assistant professor and injuring nine others. Eventually, his name was going to leak, but media outlets took the right step by not announcing his name to the public and not giving him the national attention, but it was bound to come out. (Source: CNN)

Roseburg is a small city located in the Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon with an estimated population of 21,968 as of 2013. Roseburg is commonly known as a lumber industry town and is the home of Roseburg Forest Products.

This wasn’t the first incident that the city of Roseburg has had involving a shooter. On February 23, 2006, a 14 year-old freshman critically wounded another student in the courtyard of Roseburg High School. The suspect fled to a nearby restaurant and was confronted there by police. The student then put a gun to his head before surrendering to the police (Wikipedia).

President Barack Obama gave a statement hours after the Roseburg shooting, and gave his speech with a frustrated and disappointed tone. “I hope and pray that I don’t have to come out again during my tenure as President to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances.  But based on my experience as President, I can’t guarantee that.  And that’s terrible to say.  And it can change.” It’s tough to see the “Leader of the Free World” seem so defeated, but you can bet that President Obama will do whatever he can until his presidency is over to fix this issue. Here’s a link to President Obama’s full statement on the event.

Like previously stated, Roseburg isn’t a big city and has less than 25,000 residents. If you take a look at the cities in which other shootings took place, you see that a mass shooting can virtually happen anywhere. Events like the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, the Aurora Theater shooting, and the Charlestown Church shooting were all scattered throughout the country, spanning from Colorado all the way to Connecticut. Every time media outlets begin reporting on the latest mass shooting I can’t help but wonder if one can occur here at Lincoln.

Throughout 2015, there has been 294 mass shootings (as of October 1st), in which four or more people were killed and/or injured by a firearm; 45 of those 294 shootings took place at a school. Also, Barack Obama has made 15 statements in response to mass shootings during his tenure as president, and there has been a whopping 994 mass shootings since Obama was re-elected in 2012 (Sources: Gun Violence Archive & Shooting Tracker).

Even as I type this today (October 9th), there has been numerous reports of school shootings occurring on campuses in Arizona and Texas, with one person passing away at each campus. Also, a developing story is coming out of a Colorado Springs where a shelter in place is in effect as the police are investigating reports of a possible shooter on campus.

Given that mass shootings are now prevalent in this country, I asked around Lincoln to see what students thought of when they heard of the shooting from Roseburg, Oregon, and here are some responses:

• “Another one? Really?”
• “It reminded of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings”
• “Oh yeah I heard of it. It’s crazy”
• “How many people were killed? Like 10?”
• “I can’t believe it keeps happening.”

I also asked students what they thought the odds were of a shooter coming onto our campus:

• “Maybe not here, but maybe in another San Jose high school by the end of our senior year.”
• “Probably somewhere in the district but not here.”
• “You can never know really.”

The last thing I want to cause is school-wide panic or paranoia, but taking into account that 45 of the 294 mass shootings in 2015 occurred in schools, it wouldn’t hurt to at least realize that it is a possibility. It’s a slim one, but it’s there.

This issue has reached its boiling point. Now that our country averages one mass shooting per day, it’s time to stop brushing off these events and it’s time to take a stand. Since the 2014 Midterm elections, we’ve had a Republican-dominated Congress. Their general views on these shootings is that it’s not a matter of tighter gun control; they feel more guns can prevent mass shootings from occurring and they want to preserve our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Once Congress realizes that their notions are twisted, then Obama, and future presidents, can have a better chance of preventing mass shootings from occurring. But, if Congress is unwilling to work towards this, then there’s no telling when mass shootings will be a thing of the past.

These final words by President Obama should stand as a resonating testimony, encouraging us to fight this issue together: “May God bless the memories of those who were killed today.  May He bring comfort to their families, and courage to the injured as they fight their way back.  And may He give us the strength to come together and find the courage to change.”