Are our children free to attend elementary school through college to learn? 

There is an ongoing debate and legal interpretation about the Second Amendment. It guarantees Americans a right to possess firearms. Legal interpretation of the right and the balance between individual rights and gun control remain a point of contention over the amendment’s scope and application in American law and society.

Columbine High School has a memorial from its 1999 tragic, infamous school shooting. The attack was one of the first shootings at a public school to be covered on national news. Twelve students and one teacher were killed. Memorialization began in the immediate aftermath and continues in present day.

In 2012, 20 children between six and seven years old and six adult staff members died in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Renewed debate ensued about gun control, including universal background check system proposals along with federal and state gun legislation banning sale and manufacture of some semi-automatic firearms and magazines which hold more than ten rounds of ammunition.

Sandy Hook Memorial was built in the woods behind a new Sandy Hook Elementary School, opened in July 2016, designed with bulletproof glass exteriors, fencing and fortified safe rooms.

In St. Louis, at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, two were killed and seven injured when a former student opened fire on students and staff in October 2022.

Missouri does not have a red flag law. The law permits the temporary removal of firearms from a person who is believed to present a danger to others or themselves by a state court.

Are we free if we can no longer be safe to attend public schools, private schools, places of worship, events and even be in our own homes without fear of taking cover or being threatened by another American seeking to bring harm?

How do we preserve Americans’ freedoms? How do we differentiate entitlement, the right to freedoms our constitution provides guidance and definition, from causing harm to others?

The debate over senseless gun violence arises again over the recent shooting of Charlie Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA, a prominent voice of the MAGA movement in the Republican Party. He was killed Sept. 10, with a memorial service held Sept. 21, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.