By Waleed Waite
Trinity Times Correspondent

Gun violence has resulted in sorrow, fear and frustration on campuses throughout the U.S. and growing student gun-control activism is viewed by some scholars at Trinity Washington University as a necessary call to action.

“Young people have always been change-agents in America,” said Joshua Wright, associate professor of Global Affairs at Trinity. “If you look back at the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s it was young people out in the streets marching, holding demonstrations, boycotting, and staging sit-ins that caught the media’s attention and ultimately politicians.”

Deadly shootings on the campuses of a high school in Washington in May, a private school in Nashville, Tennessee, in March, a high school in Arlington, Texas, in March, and Michigan State University in February are just a part of the greater 2023 gun violence statistics, with a staggering 19,281 deaths and 291 mass shootings as of June 14, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), an independent data collection and research group.

Trinity students were confronted with a false active shooter alert in April, sending the university into lockdown while law enforcement conducted a sweep of the campus, triggering fear and panic before the “all clear” was given.

It’s prompted some students to become involved in the growing gun-control activism, which is supported by several Trinity scholars and the university’s president, Patricia McGuire, who wrote in her blog that “ultimately, we must be on the front lines of insisting that this society find a way to reduce the violence and increase the opportunities to enjoy the kind of ‘life, liberty and happiness’ that we all have a right to experience.”

In honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day, The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. (True Reasons I Grabbed the Gun Evolved from Risks) Project hosted the Third Annual End Gun Violence Citywide Festival on June 2, 2023, in Washington’s Freedom Plaza, trying to attract the areas youth to discuss school shootings and how to address gun violence in all its forms politically, socially, psychologically, and culturally.  

“We want to make sure that we are putting out the word in our community, that gun violence is an epidemic,” said Mikki Charles, an organizer from Harrats Wildest Dreams, a group that partnered with the T.R.I.G.G.E.R Project to launch the annual conference and festival. “It’s extremely important that we empower, that we educate, that we provide resources for our youth, so they know that gun violence is not okay, it’s not normal.”

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides Americans with the right to bear arms, and guns are deeply rooted in the nation’s society, with about a third of U.S. adults reporting they personally own a firearm.

Placing limits on gun ownership and assault weapons is also politically divisive and gun lobby groups have historically fought all gun restriction laws.

“School shootings, mass shootings, settling disputes with gun violence and crime-related street firepower has been normalized in communities across the country and in the D.C. community for too long, causing area youth to grow up with the trauma of losing friends and family members,” Charles said.

The June 2 anti-gun violence festival attracted young people who are concerned with gun violence in general, particularly near their homes.

“I live in (Washington’s) Ward 1 and there are a lot of neighborhoods dealing with gun violence and it is a completely normal occurrence for me to be woken up in the middle of the night by hearing gunshots and knowing community members whose family member’s lives have been taken,” said Natasha Napper of the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who uses the pronoun they. 

“When people live in poverty-ridden communities with an inequitable distribution of resources – and don’t have access to housing, food, and basic human rights – more people become desperate and they do desperate things,” Napper said. “It’s about how we create resources. How we create systems of care. It is why the ACLU is advocating a change in local laws and policies to reduce gun violence and to provide better resources for the people who need it.”

The national statistics on gun violence are staggering, but the people living in the greater Washington metropolitan area are routinely confronted with deadly shootings locally.

“Gun violence affects every individual in this region,” said James Stocker, associate professor of Global Affairs at Trinity. “People have been shot in close proximity to my home, and I often hear gunshots at night. I worry about the safety of my colleagues, students, friends, and family.”

Gun safety and firearms controls are issues Stocker would like to see the greater Trinity community tackle.  

“Trinity students can take advantage of the opportunities on campus to learn about the root causes of gun violence and the impact that gun violence has, both here and elsewhere,” he said. “They can also work together with students at other universities and community groups to make their voices heard.”

In May the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to block two new Illinois laws prohibiting the sale of a variety of high-powered firearms with high-capacity magazines from people challenging those acts, which the state legislature passed in response to the uptick in mass shootings around the country. Opponents to those laws had asked the Supreme Court to place the measures on hold while their challenges continued in the courts.

California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York have enacted similar bans on assault weapons laws and many D.C. residents would like to see their local government pass stricter gun legislation.

New Zealand swiftly enacted sweeping gun control reforms following the shooting deaths 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch in March 2019, prompting U.S. gun reform activists to call for their country to do the same.

Trinity is holding a Town Hall on gun violence at 6 p.m. tonight, June 22, on campus in O’Connor Auditorium, in a continuing effort to engage students and the community in gun-control activism.

The Town Hall is called “Changing the Narrative on Gun Violence: A Community-Driven Approach,” and will feature a panel of community leaders, activists and organizers to share perspectives on the root causes of gun violence. A second panel of lawyers, elected officials and scholars are expected to explore how clinical, legal, and other systems can better respond to community needs to prevent firearm violence.

The time is right for Trinity students and young people nationwide to not only organize to call for gun-reform laws, but to make sure people vote on this issue as well, Wright said.

“The 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act were partly the result of student activism,” he said. 

“I think about the young people in Florida a few years ago who launched the March For Our Lives Movement to demand that Congress pass gun control laws,” Wright said. “Trinity students have the advantage of living near Capitol Hill. They can go to the offices of lawmakers to have their voices heard.  

The global affairs professor also wants to remind Trinity students they have an advantage of alumnae connections, and that many Trinity graduates from past decades have held important positions in politics. 

“I would advise students to speak with the university’s Alumnae Affairs office to identify some of those women,” Wright said. “Then speak with them about this issue. Perhaps they can be advocates for these students and help them get their voices heard on Capitol Hill.”