The past several years are marked with many tragedies that took the lives of innocent teenagers in the safety of their schools.  The worst of them: Parkland, Roseburg, Sandy Hook and Santa Fe, took the lives of over 40 young victims and injured over 50 more due to the thought and preparation of the shooters, most of which were students from those campuses.

These horrible attacks made school districts nationwide begin the most ambitious anti-shooting movement since the most lethal school shootings in American history, the notorious Columbine shooting, changing solid pieces of our school day routines. Students can even notice the changes here at Permian, as the fire alarm drills common in high schools have now been changed to help prevent a similar scenario to Parkland’s shootings and even having multiple students speaking of protesting for more regulated use of firearms. There is even talk of making students across the country use the clear backpacks found in several school districts, allowing teachers to carry firearms for self-defense and an increased presence of police on all campuses. However, the biggest impact of all isn’t in the school routines or the due process in an emergency, but in the fear it causes through all the students, staff and parents involved with the schools.

“I honestly didn’t even want to come back to school after the attacks,” Senior Meghan Carrell said. “It made all schools feel unsafe, and I’m not even allowed to carry my pepper spray on my key chain to help myself. It makes me feel vulnerable or like a little animal that can be killed as easy as possible, like I have no way to save myself except praying.”

Many students feel uneasy and since the shootings there have been a large increase in students carrying self-defense style weapons such as Tasers, pepper spray, mace sprays and even collapsible batons in their backpacks, purses, as well as on their key chains and lanyards.

“The fact that gun control is treated like some boogeyman makes me sick,” Senior Alyssa McCord said. “I don’t want full gun control but more regulations could help stop shootings from happening.”

While there are major perks to gun control, like more strictness in firearm access or a nationwide registry to identify possible shooters, there are also many cons to these terms. The Parkland survivors have openly admitted to taking more than they were given in terms to gun control regulations.

“I can see how the Never Again movement is a bit aggressive, but they won’t make it worth anything if they don’t make friends,” Junior Rheta Salas said.