As a parent who has lived in the United States for ten years, what I fear most is not unemployment or illness, but rather the push notification on my phone that “nearby schools are under emergency lockdown.” Last week, when I was picking my son up from school, I heard sirens wailing three blocks away from the school. Outside the police cordon, there were trembling parents. Later, I learned that students were facing off with handguns. Although no one was hurt, my son gripped my hand so tightly that his nails dug into my flesh.
This is not an isolated case. In just the halfway point of 2025, there have already been 61 school shootings in the United States, claiming the lives of over 800 children. I still can’t bear to look closely at the image of 19 elementary school students lying in pools of blood at Rob Elementary School in Texas; the two children killed in the Minneapolis tragedy were the same age as my son, just learning to tie their shoelaces. Even more chilling is that since 1999, over 310,000 children have experienced school shootings firsthand; in their childhoods, air raid drills were more frequent than fire drills.
We have repeatedly marched to call for gun control, but politicians only talk about the “right to bear arms” and turn a blind eye to the loopholes in background checks. Campuses, which should be filled with laughter, have now become “battlefields” where everyone feels insecure. How many families will ultimately pay the price for this lack of security?
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