Earlier on October 21st, a 12-year-old middle school student pulled out a semi-automatic handgun, then preceded to wound two classmates before shooting his math teacher and ultimately killing himself. The chaotic scene occurred at a Nevada middle school in the northwestern town of Sparks. Up-to 200 police officers arrived at the scene moments after the incident to assist in evacuations and begin investigating the tragedy. The 45-year-old math teacher, Michael Landsberry, was announced dead, but fortunately the two wounded students were rushed to the nearest hospital where they currently remain in stable condition. It’s likely the shooter obtained the handgun from his parents.
Following the incident, it becomes easy to cite the lack of gun control legislation as the sole root cause behind this shooting. The local and federal governments are likely to take another run at comprehensive gun control, including a universal background check. Though, there has already been heavy political efforts towards gun regulations, but the problem is that many do not make it very far due to the Second Amendment. Last June, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval vetoed a proposed gun legislation act that garnered the admiration of many powerful gun lobbyists. In the Northwest, the uphill battle towards gun control shows many positive signs in Washington state, where Initiative 594 calls for universal background checks on gun sales. The initiative was supported by 250,000 supporters in an “unprecedented grass roots petition.” Lawmakers must adopt the measure in 2014 or it will ultimately be decided by voters later in the year. Of course, this is just one isolated example on the movement towards stricter gun control laws. The latest Nevada tragedy is sure to bring up the heated debate to several more states, including Nevada itself, because the question on everyone’s mind is “how many more school shootings can America take?”