Gun control has been a rising problem for the United States, especially within the past year.

According to Education Week, there was total 24 school shootings resulting death or injury in 2018. The total number people killed was 114 as of December 19, 2018.

Major shootings like the Parkland, Marshall County, and Santa Fe Texas shootings happened within the first half of the year in 2018.

All of them ended with bloodshed and lost lives.

Because of school shootings, schools have been fighting for the government to look over and create stricter gun laws in the United States. But have we seen any changes in the past year?

Student activists who lived through the Parkland shooting created the March For Our Lives movement in an effort to spread awareness about not having strict enough gun laws.

In an interview with NPR, Alex Wind, now a senior at Stoneman Douglas High School, addressed the March For Our Lives movement today.

“I think what’s really important is that we keep this momentum going throughout this year and next year and throughout every year to come,” he said.

The movement is still in place today because of the students who are looking for change in our country’s government.

In 2018, the United States passed 50 new gun laws.

The Pew Charitable Trust, a non-profit government organization brought to light that Vermont had some of the loosest gun laws until 2018.

In 2018, Vermont focused closely on basic gun laws that should have been down in the books in the first place.

Laws restricting guns in K-12 classrooms was a large law pass for the state along with extensive background checks on Vermonters purchasing large magazines for their weapons.

As for other states, some have made an effort to review their laws and create new laws to protect the lives of their citizens.

However, even though there have been new laws created and put into effect, how do we know that students are truly protected?

Yes laws help with the sale of guns and ammunition, but are we adding security barriers to schools? It shouldn’t have to come to pat-downs when students arrive at school, but would there be more protection of students and faculty if another resource officer was added?

Granted, it is more tasking and tedious, but if it’s for the safety of students in the classroom, we should be making it top priority.

One person lost, even injured, in a school shooting is one too many.

We should be focusing on strict gun laws for the protection of kids and teachers in the classroom. But the laws haven’t changed enough yet.

On February 8 in Baltimore, Maryland a staff member at Frederick Douglass High School was shot and injured when 25-year-old Neil Davis shot the staff member because of disciplining his relative for being in the hallway when they weren’t supposed to be, The Baltimore Sun reported.

How much longer must students and teachers wait until they can walk into a classroom and feel safe because the United States government has made a big enough change to protect them?