When will the shootings stop?

On the morning of Friday, May 18th at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas a gunman opened fire killing 10 and wounding 13 others. This is the 22nd high school shooting in America. And to most, it was not a shocker.

According to student Paige Curry speaking to local television station KPRC, the shooting wasn’t a surprise.

“It’s been happening everywhere,” she says.

“I’ve always felt it would eventually happen here too.”

Watch the entire video interview below.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis utilized a shotgun and revolver legally owned by his father

However, the social response to Santa Fe focuses more on mental health issues. Unlike Parkland, the alleged shooter of Santa Fe, Dimitrios Pagourtzis utilized a shotgun and revolver legally owned by his father. As a student, Pagourtzis was mostly quiet and typically wore a trench coat to school. He claims to have targeted people he didn’t like because he wanted “his story told”.

In a phone interview with The Wall Street Journal, his father believed that Dimitrios was a “good boy” but “mistreated at school”. Administrators of the Santa Fe Independent School District released a statement about the investigation of bullying, concluding that there were false reports on “SFISD high school coaches and bully-like behaviors toward the student shooter.” Investigations are still ongoing about the shooting and charges are being pressed against student Dimitrios Pagourtzis.

In a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, who proposed mental health screening programs at schools. Instead of gun regulations, more emphasis was placed on methods to identify threatening students at schools.  Suggestions made by group members include monitoring student social media and the creation of an application for students to report suspicious classmates.

While the second amendment can put a gun into the hands of 300 million Americans, it is important to notice that only 8% of the population use it for a violent purpose. Therefore, an increasing trend of mental health awareness is spreading across America. Moreover, the month of May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States. Visit www.mentalhealth.gov to know more about this illness and how it can affect one’s behavior.