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On , a gunman entered a Walmart in my hometown of El Paso, Texas, and murdered 23 people in a racist rampage. The massacre shattered our community, and, five years later, people are still struggling to pick up the pieces.

As a high schooler in Texas, a state with , living and learning under the fear of gun violence is the norm. Instead of preventing a massacre, officials in my state waste instruction time forcing us to prepare for one, from monthly lockdown drills to increasingly policed campuses. As these officials shy away from regulating guns鈥攃ompletely ignoring the drastic effects the impending threat of gun violence has on our mental health鈥攕tudents, myself included, fall between the cracks. 

One week after the 2019 shooting, we were set to return to school. But instead of the giddiness I usually felt on the first day of school, the open wound of the massacre pushed fear to the forefront of my mind. In the months following the massacre, I was filled with fear about leaving my house, even to buy necessities like uniforms and school supplies. I couldn鈥檛 enter big shopping centers, malls, or even public parks. But most of my dread came from attending school.

Instead of working on school assignments, I focused on finding a seat far away from the door or a glass window. I wouldn鈥檛 leave the classroom and avoided using the school bathroom in case there might be an emergency. After months of constant fear, the COVID-19 lockdown was a welcome reprieve. 

Three years after the shooting, when the dust had finally begun to settle and it felt as though my community was healing, we were hit with the devastating news of the in Uvalde, Texas, that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers. Though there were many other mass shootings between El Paso and Uvalde, this massacre hit too close to home, not only because it was in my state, but because it reminded me our schools aren鈥檛 secure. 

Uvalde鈥檚 victims could very well have been me and my peers. All I could think of was another massacre, another community facing more death, more pain, more fear, more 鈥渢houghts and prayers.鈥� Most of all, more of my state doing absolutely nothing to prevent the next shooting. 

As of 2021, Texas no longer requires a license to carry a firearm, making it easier to get a gun than to get a puppy. In no functioning world should it be easier to obtain a lethal weapon than a pet.鈥�

As of , Texas no longer requires a license to carry a firearm, making it easier to get a gun than to get a . In no functioning society should it be easier to obtain a lethal weapon than a pet. As of 2022, are the in children between the ages of 0 and 19 in the United States, confirming the fear felt by young people like me. We cannot expect to lower instances of gun violence if our state lawmakers maintain their negligent approach. 

Meanwhile, students like myself across the country are envisioning a world in which classrooms are used for learning instead of for hiding. 鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 have to worry about gun violence, I think I would have a little more trust in authority figures or law enforcement,鈥� says Scotty Meza, a sophomore at Young Women鈥檚 Academy (YWA) in El Paso, Texas. 鈥淚 feel like, as a Texas student, the solution is so easy, and that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so frustrating.鈥� 

Tiffany Correa, a sophomore at YWA, agrees, saying, 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have to constantly look for the closest exit door, or what position in a room would be the hardest angle to shoot. Freedom from gun violence to me means that we limit who can get a gun.鈥�

For Sravya Reddy Guda, a sophomore at Parkway West High School in Ballwin, Missouri, a gun-free world is a world where 鈥渟tudents aren鈥檛 afraid of opening a school door out of fear of a shooter being on the other side, and parents don鈥檛 have to worry if a tragic accident that happened to another family
is going to happen to their own.鈥� 

鈥淚t is the difference between constantly being stressed and being relaxed over something that should be as simple as getting an education,鈥� expresses Aruja Misra, a sophomore at Coronado High School in El Paso, Texas.

It seems as though every time we get close to healing from a massacre, we are bombarded with the pain of the next one and propelled into an endless cycle of gun violence. 

This has to stop. We should be able to attend school knowing we will return home at the end of the day. Schools should provide a safe environment rather than serve as a place of anxiety, and the only way to achieve true freedom for students is to protect us instead of guns.  

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Marium Zahra is a high school student, journalist, and artist. She enjoys playing chess, creating realistic art, and reading classic literature. Her work has been published by numerous local magazine, nonprofits, and organizations that protect social justice, including The City Magazine (El Paso/Las Cruces), Chalkbeat, PrismReports, and Business Insider. She speaks English, Spanish, and Urdu.

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