Gun violence has been the brunt of many of Gen Z’s lives for as long as we can remember. One day, we stopped learning every other month how to run if there is a fire, to how to protect ourselves if a gunman comes on campus.
For the past decade, children have been effected by gun violence in the United States. Guns are now the number one cause of death for the generation.
It is not only in schools, but it plagues our streets and our homes. It has been left up to Gen Z to create that change when others will not.
March For Our Lives
There is still hope for the country and for the youth that we are watching grow, but also one day our own children.
After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2017 – the deadliest school shooting in years – we saw the rise of March for Our Lives.
The March For Our Lives organization focused on the prevention of gun violence. The people who brought it to light were survivors of the deadly shooting.
Their work hasn’t gone unnoticed in the political sphere, as proven by the fact that we now have the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
As a group built on the youth of our generation, they are quick to act on social media, reaching their audience of like-minded activists wanting change. The March for Our Lives campaign utilizes digital platforms effectively.
They use their social media profiles to act in the now. This spans from breaking news to petitions to walkouts. For many, this is the only way we get the targeted news we are looking for.
In 2023, after a non-stop push from March For Our Lives and their allies, President Biden created “The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.” This was a moment for many that proved our push is not for nothing.
The Executive Director, Natalie Fall, stated, “This is a victory for young people and the movement. We’ve called for this office for years because we know it has the power to save lives.”
Mental health
A major factor in this ongoing battle of safety is mental health.
When it comes to gun-related suicide, we see media outlets rush to stamp them as either a victim or the aggressor.
Many of us grew up hearing the phrase “see something, say something” and “this is a bully-free school,” but when it comes down to it, does the school act in the words they put forth?
As a personal experience growing up in the age of cyberbullying, I saw it get ignored by school officials often.
Moreover, there are children now are being raised on electronics from a young age, as it was something not available to us at their age.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death in our youth. The prevalence of gun-related incidents continues to concern groups like March for Our Lives.
We saw a spike in this during the Pandemic as suicide by guns rose higher than by other means for the first time in twenty years, according to Everytown research.
Everytown for Gun Safety has created a place to reach all sorts of people with their research. While March for Our Lives is more of a media reached form of activism; Everytown uses articles of statistics.
Although the fight hasn’t stopped there as they have recruited thousands of activist to join their groups to preach safety. One specifically is Mayors Against Illegal Guns which has grown to a membership of thousands of mayors from across the US.
This fight is stretching to many groups helping show that we as a generation are not in this fight alone.
Gun violence outside
Gun violence reaches children no matter what the government spews. With guns being accessible to many children it is an epidemic in the country.
Everytowns reasearch on gun violence amongst the youth states, that an estimated 3 million children experience this a year.
With this these children are more likely to suffer from substance abuse and a multitude of mental health problems.
As of January 16th, 65% of deaths by gun in children and teens is homicide with 85% being at home.
92% of hospitalizations in children from guns happen in urban areas. With that children in urban and low income youth are more likely to witness gun violence apposed to their counterparts.
Gun Violence in Schools
Everytown for Gun Safety is a well-known organization that has advocated for years for the prevention of gun violence, as well as spreading information for us to learn.
In many instances, these guns were obtained by taking a parent’s firearm that was not locked up properly. Many states do not have secure storage or child-access prevention laws.
Most prominently, this was seen during the Oxford High School, where a fifteen-year-old student opened fire on the school using a gun bought for him not too long prior. Due to this, the parents were charged for their part in the crime.
The US Secret Service did a case study spanning over 40 years covering how many guns where easily accessible in a home that where used in a school shootings. In their findings they found that over half where done in this instance from 2008-17.
The way we can hope for a change has been available to us it just doesnt come from the government.
Everytown has created a list to show the things we can do. This list spans from safe storage laws to universal background checks.
A key point in their article that sticks out is “foster a safe and trusting school climate.”
Bullying in schools is at a high but get ignored by school officials. I’ve heard all forms of rationale from being “overdramatic” to “Oh it was online.”
School bullying is a huge factor in many peoples irrational actions but our schools aren’t fighting enough to keep us safe.
The impact
We are seeing in these recent years that the impact from social media and these groups are working.
Children are no longer excepting the hateful spew that these mass casualty events will happen. They are seeing a change and are willing to fight for it.
As shown frequently on March for Our Lives social media platforms, children are protesting for their own safety.
There has been evidence of the impact of their outreach for years. Schools all over the country has seen protesting.
Although we see how this organization is fighting at a higher level. School aged children are fighting at the base.
There own lives are not the only focus. Many are honoring the lives lost.
This aspect of the fight is not often seen. News outlets do not cover as often the scenes of these protest.
For this, to know what is going on at the base is social media. As more school aged children have access to social media, many forms of activism are getting covered as they happen.
Change is no longer something we are sitting around and hoping for but we are fighting for and seeing work.
Visual protest have been around for generations from Civil Rights to ACT UP to March For Our Lives. These acts have put a visual to the cause making them that more impactful.
Political roll backs
At the start of Trump’s first presidency it was very clear that he wanted to erase many “radical” policies President Obama previously put in place.
Most know when it comes to gun violence was the erasure of mental health background checks.
Mental health background checks can prevent a person with known mental illness that can result in harm in them selves or others from obtaining a firearm.
The issue that many find in the matter is it feels like a violation of HIPPA. Should sellers have access to something that was medically treated?
Obama’s regulation came just shortly after the Sandy Hook mass shooting. The deadliest school shooting in our time, 26 dead, mainly children.
This regulation could have kept estimated around 70,000 names from people that receive social security checks because of their mental health as well people deemed mentally unfit to handle their finances.
Depending on the side of the political spectrum you are on it was seen either as an act agianst the second amendment or just an act to protect others.
John Feinblatt President of Everytown for gun safety that saw this as an act to earn the favor of the NRA according to a statement given to NBC. He stated “‘just the first item on the gun lobby’s wish list’ … ‘pushing more guns, for more people, in more places.'”
The Trump administration even now still acts on favor of the NRA even despite frequent mass shootings with just in the past year there was 488 mass shootings across the country.
But yet we are left with nothing more then “Hopes and Prayers” by the current administration.
If you are searching for help or are impacted by the subject matter of this article, mental health hotlines are available at the following link: https://www.helpguide.org/find-help.
Eric
January 22, 2026 at 5:44 pm
Yet here we are again blaming law abiding gun owners instead of the criminals. Democrats and thier cronies in the hun control movement are the modern day KGB.