By By: Mira Costello
Editor-in-Chief
On Feb. 13, a gunman entered the campus of Michigan State University Lansing and killed Alexandria Verner, Brian Fraser and another victim whose family requested their name not be publicized. Five other students were wounded.
The shooting at MSU was the 67th mass shooting in 2023 alone, according to Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an event where four or more people are injured or killed from gunfire, not including the aggressor(s). At the time of publication, there have been seven mass shootings since the one at MSU.
Making this event particularly painful, it follows a deadly 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, making it the second mass shooting some MSU students have endured in their short lives.
In the U.S., some of our 20-year olds have personally experienced two mass shootings. In Australia, where the last mass shooting was in 1996, 20-year olds have not even had to see one on the news in their lifetime.
No matter how you slice it, mass shootings are an American problem. According to the Small Arms Survey, there are 120 guns for every 100 people in the U.S. – yes, an average of more than one gun per person. Our closest second is Canada, with 34.7 guns for every 100 people.
Unsurprisingly, there is strong evidence to show that our gun ownership rates are strongly related to our rate of gun violence, which is 18 times higher than other developed countries.
Many contend that “normal” guns are fine, but that we can ban assault rifles for civilians. However, like hundreds before it – including the Oxford High School shooting – last week’s attack at MSU was committed with a handgun.
We can say it’s about mental health – which it is.
We can say that “people kill people” – which they do.
But at the end of the day, we can’t say that it’s not about guns, too. We can’t deny that a 15-year old can’t buy alcohol, nicotine or lottery tickets, but that they can buy a gun at a gun show.
Year over year, we are shown that stricter gun laws reduce gun violence, and year over year, we fail. We fail to protect our children, our students, our educators, our families and our people.
We failed to protect Alexandria Verner, Brian Fraser and the third student at MSU.
We failed to protect Xavier Lopez, Uziyah Garcia, Makenna Lee Elrod and 18 more of their classmates and teachers at Uvalde.
We failed to protect Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance at Colorado Springs.
Each day, in what some call the greatest country on Earth, we have to fear that one day, we might fail to be protected.
If you would like to support the victims and families involved in the shooting at MSU, you can search “MSU” on gofundme.com to find verified fundraisers, ranging from money for funeral costs to medical treatment and costs for the injured victims, including John Hao and Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez.
You can also search for and donate to the Brian Fraser Presidential Memorial Scholarship, which will benefit MSU’s Phi Delta Theta, of which Fraser was president.
