Editor’s Note: This article contains reference to gun violence.
A lot of us were doing the exact same thing Monday afternoon. Watching the news, refreshing social media for updates, frantically messaging people on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus — most of whom were barricading a classroom — just to make sure our friends weren’t dead.
We know it happens every day. We know it’s routine. We know what the next week of empty statements and gestures from politicians will look like. It’s become as commonplace as a collection of age-old adages; “thoughts and prayers” combated with “thoughts and prayers aren’t enough” and other dull calls to action fighting the “don’t politicize a tragedy” crowd.
Yet it’s still so incredibly upsetting. You just want to throw up, cry and scream all at the same time. How can anyone look around and want to prioritize anything else in the world? How can we think about anything else? Operate on a day-to-day basis?
I am not a particularly emotional person. I am generally level headed; I especially don’t tend to get upset or angry often. Nothing tears as deep a hole in my heart and makes me want to go to war quite like school shootings.
These instances are such an absurd reality that our minds seem to just dull them out until we’re forced to face it head on again (every other day). If you’ve never been confronted by the existential American reality that these things very well could be coming to your neighborhood, school, workplace, favorite restaurant, mall, sports game, grocery store or place of worship, I truly envy you. Though I am sure more of us than not have paused and pondered that sentiment before.
No one can walk onto a college campus in the United States with any kind of total assurance they won’t become a victim today. It seems it is just a chance we take on a daily basis and an established part of our lives.
It feels inevitable. It doesn’t just seem like it’s around the corner; it literally is. And it’s exhausting. I mean, literally switching through channels trying to find coverage of Chapel Hill, I flipped through coverage of the shooting in Jacksonville. No, I’m looking for the more-local mass shooting, please.
I don’t want to be an alarmist. I don’t want to scare people, but we need to be scared. We should be terrified. There is no other way to frame it. I don’t want this article to be about NC State because our neighbors are mourning, and it’s obviously so much larger than that. But I doubt anyone on campus didn’t think “that could’ve been us” at least once Monday.
We are the largest campus in North Carolina, right ahead of Chapel Hill and UNC Charlotte, who I will remind you experienced a mass shooting just four years ago. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are a walking target of almost 40,000 strong.
Nothing in the world seems to hurt as much as these headlines. Until they get closer.
I’m not going to list out a set of solutions. Technician, and every other publication in the world, did that for the last major school shooting. There are no numbers or statistics that seem to incite change.
The nature of these things plainly appear inevitable in this day and age. They really don’t need to be. There are real initiatives to pursue, it just needs an impassioned collective push. We all need to be on the same page; and by this point, we should be.
We sit no more than 10 minutes from the North Carolina General Assembly, where a supermajority gives a party nearly unprecedented power in efficiently passing legislation. The list of solutions are easy to find. There is no reason this issue should be viewed as one with partisan allegiances — it is literally killing us.
To the Chapel Hill community, we mourn with you. We love you, and we are connected in a community in more ways than we often acknowledge. Our school reps Carolina blue tonight. The onus is on all of North Carolina to fix this and ensure we don’t see this kind of tragedy ever again. If we don’t, these kinds of things are simply knocking on the door.
If you or someone you know is having difficulty processing grief or having a mental health emergency, the Counseling Center can be reached 24 hours a day at 919-515-2423. If you are in a crisis situation and need immediate help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. In the case of a life-threatening emergency, call 911.
The Counseling Center’s website offers free online screenings, a plethora of self-help resources regarding mental health and wellness concerns and a comprehensive list of campus services available for those who need guidance. To view an exhaustive list, visit counseling.dasa.ncsu.edu/resources.
If you’re seeking professional counseling or other mental health services on campus, visit the Counseling Center’s Getting Started page at counseling.dasa.ncsu.edu/about-us/gettingstarted to complete paperwork, set up an appointment and more.
