Eight. That’s the amount of school shooting that have taken place so far in 2018. We are only two months into the year. Many people are calling on President Donald Trump to push for laws placing more restrictions on who can or cannot buy guns. The President, however, has his own ideas on how to address this issue.

The worst mass school shooting of 2018 took place on Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, leaving 17 people dead and many more injured. Since then, many survivors of the shooting have become gun control activists. Students have started a movement called Never Again. The movement has demanded legislative action to prevent this type of tragedy from ever happening again and have condemned lawmakers who received contributions from the National Rifle Association. Many people have supported the movement, calling for Washington to make a change. The day the shooting happened, the President sent his condolences to the families of the victims via Twitter. In a speech later on, Trump mentioned school safety and mental health as being some of the causes for the shooting. This prompted many people to think he was avoiding the gun issue that has been plaguing the country for so long. This led to much frustration among people involved in the Never Again movement.

Later on, Trump introduced an idea to arm qualified teachers with firearms. He then tweeted “Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept and have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again.” This caused much controversy. “If you arm teachers, that would be very dangerous,” suggested sophomore Jalin Hill. The president hasn’t done much else regarding gun control and the Parkland shooting other than sending his prayers out and suggesting that if he had been present at the time of the shooting he would’ve ran into Stoneman High School to protect the students. “Trump is not handling this situation that well,” said sophomore Tyler Perrie.

This only prolongs the debate that’s been plaguing the country for so long now. Many people are furious about the government’s role in this problem, and it leaves many wondering; how many more deaths will it take to bring change?