Zach McMeans is a 2014 graduate of Borden High School, where he was a state FFA officer and a UIL State Champion in Congress, CX Debate, and Persuasive Speaking. He earned his bachelor’s degree from West Texas A&M University in agricultural media and communication.
I will never forget my first active shooter drill. I was in Mrs. Turner’s fifth grade class. I will forever remember the conversations about what books we’d put in our backpack, hoping that they’d be thick enough to stop bullets.
I will never forget my dad, the principal, keeping a billy club under his desk. His office was the closest one to the door. It occurred to me that my father might be the first one to confront an armed intruder—with a billy club. I had nightmares about him not coming home.
Unlike a growing number of students in this country, I graduated without ever having to test to see if my social studies and reading textbooks could stop a bullet. Thank God I still have my dad, but he is still an educator. Two decades after that first shooter drill, my fears for his safety remain.
My first job post-university was working in student conduct and behavioral intervention. My granddad, also a former principal, bought me a retractable night stick to keep in my desk. A generational curse, I guess, a McMeans versus a firearm in the event a disturbed student entered my office. While working on campus, I noticed that university police added tourniquets to their utility belts. I knew why.
To many of you this may seem dramatic. Families at a church school in Nashville, Tennessee, would beg to differ.
I own multiple firearms and love hunting and shooting for sport. My dad and granddad exposed me to guns at a young age, and it continues to be a hobby and sport I cherish and enjoy.
I am a conservative. I believe in the Second Amendment and am a staunch supporter of individuals being able to own and bear firearms.
Maybe because I am a former debater, however, I am capable of looking at the issue of school shootings in the United States with reason. Facts matter.
Since the shooting in Columbine in 1999, there have been more than 175 people who have lost their lives to mass shootings on U.S. schools and college campuses. Please note this number does not include events where three or fewer students and staff members lost their lives. There have been 15 mass school shootings since Columbine and last week’s tragedy (AP data).
There was a next after Columbine. There was a next after Red Lake High School. There was a next after West Nickel Mines Amish School, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, OIKOS University, Sandy Hook Elementary, University of California Santa Barbara, Marysville Pilchuck High School, Umpqua Community College, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Santa Fe High School (Texas), Oxford High School, Robb Elementary. There will be a next after the Covenant School.
There is not a dichotomy. Your respective party wants you to believe that the solution to this issue revolves around firearms. If you are a Democrat, you’re getting talking points about confiscation. If you’re a Republican, chances are you truly believe “the evil left is coming for your firearms.” Both viewpoints have given public acceptance to inaction. Both are the reason that 175 kids and educators are no longer walking among us.
Complex issues call for complex solutions. Call your elected officials and demand that your government dive into this conversation. Applaud efforts at common sense legislation.
If you have not seen the video of Uvalde, watch it. The disclaimer at the start warns viewers, “The sounds of the children’s screams and cries have been edited out of this video.” A video from Nashville with a pixelated image of a child lying in blood at the school is not fake.
I pray for the heart of our nation. May we demand action before the next.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West Texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.
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