“And now a moment of silence,” Principal Kaye Houlihan requested over morning announcements. On November 20, the country was shocked to learn of another horrific atrocity committed in Colorado Springs. A gunman opened fire in an LGBTQ+ Club in the area, killing five and wounding twenty-five patrons.
This mass shooting is just one of a series of mass shootings that drew national attention this year. In April of this year, a gunman opened fire in the New York City subway lines in Brooklyn. There were no casualties, but there was an undeniable shock to all residents in New York and the nation. Nearly a month after that event, another shooting in Buffalo, New York, claimed the lives of ten innocent people in a supermarket. In a state with some of the strictest gun control laws, lives were still taken by mass shootings. Uvalde, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Highland Park, III; Memphis, Tennessee; and so many more have scarred the nation with marks of gun violence. These shootings took the lives of forty-five innocent men, women, and children, all within the same year. Tragically, this list barely grazes the long list of all events of gun violence and mass shootings in 2022 alone.
Fort Hamilton staff and students have found themselves haunted by the specter of violence. Two evacuations of the Fort Hamilton building in May of 2022, caused by several non-credible threats, all of which turned out to be hoaxes, rocked the school community. Although the threats were dealt with swiftly and the culprit behind them was apprehended, the fear that the same violence plaguing the country could enter Fort’s doors left an undeniable mark on the students and staff in the subsequent days. Students would tense at the sound of announcements interrupting their classes, a stressful reminder of the announcements calling for an evacuation.
Government officials have been divided in response to the growing epidemic of mass shootings. From New York to Texas to Colorado to Virginia, the entire country has felt the effects of growing gun violence.
While gun violence is undeniably an issue that has plagued the nation, there is not enough legislation preventing more brutal murders through mass shootings. Congress passed the Safer Communities Act gun safety bill on June 25, 2022 – the first major congressional gun safety legislation in thirty years. The act “includes incentives for states to pass so-called red flag laws that allow groups to petition courts to remove weapons from people deemed a threat to themselves or others,” according to National Public Radio, and “expands background checks on people between the ages of 18 and 21 seeking to buy a gun.” Although advocates for gun control legislation contend that the bill fails to do enough to address the threat of gun violence, many consider the bill a step in the right direction.
Miles away, some people have become numb to seeing these headlines on every news anchor, while others grieve from the destruction one weapon can cause. The Fort Hamilton community refuses to accept these wounds to our nation. In the week following the shooting in Colorado Springs, Principal Houlihan read quotations from several transgender activists during daily announcements, empowering the Fort community to hope for a better future and reminding its LGBTQ+ students that they are loved, supported, and cared for when they are here.
