The second amendment is sacrosanct in the United States:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

At the time the American Constitution was drafted in 1791, the primary weapons available were muskets and pistols that could hold a single round at a time, and a skilled shooter could hope to get off three or possibly four rounds in a minute of firing. They were also relatively inaccurate.

Of course, today guns are far more prevalent, more accurate and have a much greater rate of fire, allowing a single individual to do far greater damage in a short period of time. In the Uvalde shooting, the shooter took over 1,000 rounds of ammunition with him to the school, ultimately killing 22 people.

According to Ammo.com, there are:

• Between 400 million and 500 million civilian-owned firearms.
• 1.93 firearms for every adult in the U.S. and 1.5 for every American citizen, including children.
• At least one firearm in 46% of American households - approximately 65.19 million.

According to Texas Penal Code § 46.03(a)(1), (g), taking a gun onto a school grounds (without appropriate authorization) is a third degree felony, and most states have similar laws.

At the Federal level, taking a gun within 1,000 feet of a school campus is also illegal (U.S. Code, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 44, Section 922). Section 7961, Title 20, U.S. Code also requires states that receive federal funding enact a state law requiring students who bring firearms to school to be expelled for at least one year - though this is rarely enforced in practice from our conversations with school police departments in Texas and given the scale of the numbers.

According to the CDC in a 2024 report:

• 513 (4.5%) high school students out of a sample size of 11,374 carried a gun to school at least once in the past 12 months, with 187 carrying a gun on six days or more.
• 1,714 (9.5%) high school students from a sample size of 17,974 were threatened or injured by a weapon at school in the past 12 months.
• 2,301 (12%) high school students from a sample size of 18,892 missed school days in the past month due to concerns about physical safety.

Given 17.3 million high school students across the US, over 605,000 high school students have taken a gun to school in the past 12 months, around 1.6M have been threatened by a weapon at school, and around 2.1M miss days of school each month due to concerns about personal safety.

These numbers are truly shocking. How can anyone not be shocked by this? It can be little wonder that gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children in the US (Source: KFF).

How is this reflected in the state of mind of stakeholders across education - teachers, parents and students?

• 59% of K-12 teachers say they are at least somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting ever happening at their school. (Source: Pew Research)
• 34% of high school teachers say they experienced a gun-related lockdown in the 2022-23 school year. (Source: Pew Research)