Walkouts, protests, and a demand for action. Since the recent Stoneman Douglas school shooting, students, teachers, and parents have been making a plea to the government for more rigorous gun control.

After the lack of interest from the FBI and the school shooting that took place in Douglas a few weeks ago, 14 high school students, as well as three staff members have died, and 14 were injured. The former student, 19 year old Nikolas Cruz, was responsible for the shooting. In September of 2017, the FBI received a tip that a youtuber by the name of Nikolas Cruz said he wanted to be a professional school shooter. Then in January of this year, the FBI was warned once again that Cruz had made a threat to shoot up the school.

People are outraged because if the FBI had listened to the threat, then they could have arrested Cruz and avoided the matter all together. But despite the heartbreak, some students of the school have joined together to become gun control advocates and created the advocacy group Never Again MSD (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School).

Cruz, who was later arrested on 17 counts of premeditated murder, entered the school almost effortlessly. He walked in when the gates were open, arriving by Uber. Then a student, Chris Mckenna, approached him and Cruz told him “You’d better get out of here, things are gonna start gettin’ messy.”

Mckenna fled and the school went into a lock down, or “code red.”

Then Mckenna told the assistant football coach at the school. The coach soon went to go check it out but was shot with a AR-15, using his body as a human shield to protect a freshman girl, and died right after.

Cruz proceeded to shoot, starting with kids in the halls on the first and second floors of the freshman building.

At 3:36, the lockdown was lifted, and Cruz had left the campus. After the whole event, Cruz fled to a nearby Walmart, got a drink, and left on foot. Then he went to a McDonalds, sat down for a short time, and fled once again. Finally at 3:41 Cruz was detained, and arrested.

Our school also had a lockdown drill to make sure students would be prepared in case of an emergency. The teachers locked the doors, closed the curtains and most importantly, had students hide under desks. Since this was a drill, some classes didn’t hide under desks, like Mr. Spencers Biology class. And teachers continued with lessons. But if it was not a drill, everyone should be silent, under a desk and following a teacher or officers directions for the safest exit plan.

It’s very unlikely that our school will be attacked, but it’s never bad to be overly prepared.

Most everyone wants Cruz dead because he killed innocent kids and facelty of a high school. Howard Finkelstein, the chief public defender in Broward county said “When we let our children fall off the grid, when they are screaming for help in every way, do we have the right to kill them when we could have stopped it?” He said to a reporter for the New York Times.

Should mentally ill people be executed? With these kinds of things, it can be difficult to find a just punishment, but there is no question that he will be convicted of 17 counts of murder

Truly, one would have to ask, will it happen to our school? Most schools practice lockdowns and fire drills to make sure they are prepared for when disaster strikes. But, no one can ever truly be prepared when put in a life or death situation. In light of the recent event threatening to harm students at our school, found in the girls locker room, no one is really sure how safe we are. The school is as prepared as possible, and has sadly, gotten these kinds of threats before.

One of the best ways to prepare for a school shooting is to listen to directions because most teachers would do anything to keep you safe, because that is part of their job. Also, when directed to, take a direct exit. Zig zagging is not the best option if you need to get out of the building fast. And finally, always have someone with you.