Controversy surrounding gun control laws in the United States has been a hot button issue for decades. In 2025 alone, at least 488 mass shootings took place across the country, despite only a handful receiving nationwide news coverage. Immediately following highly publicized shootings, there is often a spike in people openly expressing anti-firearm sentiments. However, this vocalization is often very short-lived and dies down, with discussions surrounding gun reform only happening right after a violent tragedy.
Rampant domestic gun violence is often viewed as a strictly American phenomenon due to the U.S.'s more relaxed firearm ownership policies, but it has become a global issue. On Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, two Jihad terrorists attacked a Hanukkah candle lighting celebration in Bondi Beach, Australia. Fifteen people were murdered and over 40 were injured, marking the second deadliest shooting in Australian history. This violent and antisemetic act was quickly followed by many Australian states creating more restrictions regarding how many firearms one person can own and an increase in how often gun licences must be renewed.
These quick policy shifts are a stark contrast to the U.S.'s firearm policies in reaction to mass shootings, which have only been altered significantly by one federal law in the past 30 years. Schools have become repeatedly subjected to fatal gunfire incidents. The total of 159 school gunfire incidents in the U.S. have resulted in 53 deaths and 148 injuries. One of the most recent mass shootings took place at Brown University, killing two students and injuring nine. It serves as the most recent reminder of violence that shocked the public, yet again proving that virtually every public space and its safety has been compromised because of inaction.
Additionally, for some survivors of the Brown shooting, this wasn't their first school shooting. Zoe Weissman was 12 when she survived the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She's now 20, and the Brown shooting was the second school shooting she survived. Although the Parkland shooting was instrumental in getting gun protection laws passed — 50 new gun protection laws were passed in the aftermath — the work done then and in the eight years since was clearly not enough to protect Weissman from another shooting. It was not enough to save the lives of Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, both students at Brown who were described as brilliant and beloved by their loved ones. For Weissman and other students who have survived multiple school shootings, school will be associated with gun violence as they graduate and move into the world. School is meant to be a place of education and safety.
For the U.S., mass casualty shootings garner a few days of “thoughts and prayers” plastered everywhere, but what these shootings warrant are policies and laws to protect people. A country that is quick to forget the untimely deaths of even its innocent civilians will not change its laws. It is easy to move on with your life when you have never experienced gun violence, but it's not easy for the victims of gun violence and their families.
In the past 12 years there have been over 7,024 mass shootings in the U.S. In that same time, Australia has only experienced 11 mass shootings. It took Australia a few days to change its laws following the Bondi Beach incident, yet the U.S., on the other hand, has had hundreds of shootings since the last legislative change — The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — signed by Biden in 2022.
It is clear that legislative change towards stricter gun regulation directly makes communities safer. As young Americans it is our job to demand that our government protect us from gun violence. As high school students in a country where school shootings are all-too-rampant, this issue gets to the core of our very safety. Change follows consistent persistence, so it is imperative that more advocacy for gun control is done without being induced by a shooting and devastating loss of life fresh in our minds.