On March 27, the 129 mass shooting of 2023 occurred at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, a Presbyterian school located in the Green Hills neighborhood.
Six people were killed in the incident, as well as the shooter.
The victims were identified as Eveyn Dieckhaus(9), Hallie Scruggs(9), William Kinney(9), Cynthia Peak(61), Katherine Koonce(60), and Mike Hill(61).
The perpetrator was identified as a former student of the school, Audrey Hale(28), according to reports from the Chicago Tribune.
The report, titled “Nashville school shooter had drawn maps, done surveillance”, wrote that Hale had meticulously planned out the shooting beforehand.
The plan was found in what officers believed to be a manifesto, containing writings pertaining to the date of the shooting and a drawn out map planning how the incident would take place.
It was reported that Hale had “some resentment for having to go to that school”.
Hale was armed with 3 weapons, which they used to gain entry to the school by firing at and shattering the glass doors.
Two of the weapons were assault style weapons and one a handgun, two of which were obtained legally in the Nashville area according to the article.
A search of the shooter’s home later turned up additional weapons, including a sawed-off shotgun and a second shotgun, the article continued.
Tennesse Representative, Tim Burchett(R), stated that “It’s a horrible, horrible situation and we’re not going to fix it” in an interview with journalist Brennan Murphy(@brenonade).
Burchett continued, “Criminals are going to be criminals. My daddy fought in the second world war, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me. He said ‘buddy, he said if somebody wants to take you out, and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it’”.
There have been more mass shootings in 2023 than homicides in Chicago alone.
According to the Chicago Tribune, there have been 105 homicides in the city since the start of the year. Whereas there have been 129 mass shootings across the country since the start of the year, as of March 28.
17 of the 129 mass shootings occurred in schools according to the Washington Post article titled “There have been 376 school shootings since Columbine”.
This rise in mass shootings per year follows the expiration of the 1994 ban of automated assault weapons, the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act.
The act, commonly called the assault weapons ban, prohibited the “manufacture or sale for civilian use of certain semi-automatic weapons”.
It also banned “magazines that could accommodate 10 rounds or more” according to the NPR article, “The U.S. Once Had A Ban On Assault Weapons — Why Did It Expire?”.
A tweet from Hillary Clinton(@HillaryClinton) on March 28 stated that “Mass shootings dropped during that decade. We did it once and we should do it again”.
The ban had a “sunset provision”, meaning that it would automatically expire after 10 years if not renewed by Congress.
When the time rolled around to renew the ban, Congress was largely GOP dominated as a result of the 2002 election and the ban was not renewed.
The rise of mass shootings, and specifically school shootings, has called attention to the notion that virtually anyone could fall victim to the next incident.
Saint Xavier University’s current active shooter plan is a “policy that requires our officers to respond rapidly to the incident. We no longer wait for Special Teams to arrive and respond to the incident. Our officers are required to locate and engage the shooter quickly” said Public Safety Police Chief, Melvin Cornelius.
With the rise in school shootings, SXU’s Student Government Association(SGA) has raised concerns about the Warde Academic Center no longer requiring swipe access to enter the building, as noted in the Xavierite article titled “Students React to Change in Swipe Access”.
When asked if there was any new information, Cornelius stated: “Our current building access plan has been reviewed by our University Leadership Team. At this time, there is no information regarding intention to modify the existing plan”.
SGA has also brought up concerns regarding the lack of locks on classroom doors in the main building.
Pete Skach, Director of Facilities Services, stated that “We’re currently inventorying all of the various campus classroom door locks and working with a vendor to provide pricing on providing Safelock door lock devices. Once we have that information, we will also be pursuing the installation costs for all of those devices”.
To find more information on the university’s active shooter response plan, students can visit the “Public Safety” tab of the Student Life section of sxu.edu.