I was sitting outside my office at Florida State when the shooting began. I heard a loud crash that could have been gunfire, but I quickly dismissed the idea. I knew that gun violence is common in the United States, compared with other countries, but I didn’t think it would come to our campus.
In the end, two people died and six were hospitalized on April 17. Beyond the immediate loss of life, the tragedy has shaken the FSU community. Once classes resumed, it became clear that my students had lost something precious.
David Newheiser. (Courtesy photo)
As a teacher, I understand education as a practice of freedom — an opportunity for students to develop new skills, empowering them to better understand the world and themselves. However, as my students have found, personal growth is difficult when violence can erupt at any time.
Gun violence carries a terrible cost, but it is not inevitable. A few months ago I moved back to the United States after living 10 years in Australia. Although the U.S. has repeatedly failed to address the problem of gun violence, Australia shows that it is possible.
In 1996 Australia’s conservative party enacted ambitious gun reforms in response to a shooting. In the previous 18 years, the country had suffered 13 mass shootings (in which five or more people died). Over the following 20 years, there were none.
Some Americans fear that regulating guns will lead to totalitarian government, but that is not what happened in Australia. Many Australians continue to own guns, they simply need to have a good reason.
Australians may purchase firearms for hunting, occupational use or target practice, but the law restricts weapons designed for mass destruction. Multiple studies have shown that these restrictions have significantly reduced Australian gun deaths.
Like the United States, Australia is a young nation with a culture of frontier individualism. Australians value their independence — they have simply decided that gun violence makes everyone less free.
Although Australia regulates firearm ownership, it remains one of the world’s freest societies — freer, by many measures, than the United States.
I refuse to accept that my students must live in a world with widespread mass shootings. Since most Americans support regulating firearms, it is within our power to work for a safer world. Australia addressed gun violence, and so can we.
David Newheiser is an associate professor of religion at Florida State University. This essay was written in his personal capacity and does not represent the official views of his employer.