As gun violence continues to plague the country and school shootings fill students, teachers and staff alike with dread, a juvenile suspect entered Erie High School last week and shot one student.
The victim was reportedly in stable condition, according to police. The student gunman turned himself in, authorities said.
While this incident was, fortunately, not fatal, the same cannot be said for many similar cases across the state. The ongoing crisis of gun violence has left Pennsylvania youths deeply worried.
“Naturally, I was worried for my own safety and the safety of everyone at my school, but I tried not to overreact because school threats are so common,” high school freshman Owen Jacobs told the Bucks County Courier Times after a gun threat at Palmyra High school in Lebanon County.
Last month, not one, but two buyers of straw purchase firearms were arrested, and, on March 1st, prominent firearm trafficker and Bucks County man Thomas Harris Jr, 29, was sentenced to three years and ten months in prison.
On March 11, Norristown County’s Amanda Barr, 37, a former prison guard, was arrested for illegally trafficking guns.
There have been other gun arrests as well.
Democrat Ann Marie Mitchell, who is currently running for the 6th district Senate seat against Republican state Rep. Frank Farry, is a founding member of the Orange Wave for Gun Safety group.
Moreover, incumbent state Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10th) has made it clear he intends to continue to fight for gun control reform.
The need for stronger gun laws in Bucks, as well as the rest of Pennsylvania, is one that should have already been resolved by our lawmakers.
Never, should our youth live in fear of illegal gun activity and violence.
