September 2, 2025
“In the wake of the recent spate of gun violence and multiple threats on American campuses, The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus issues this Back-to-School statement and reflection.”
“For those of us who grew up prior to the Lockdown Generation, embarking on a new school year brought jumpy nerves, the kind always balanced and tempered by sheer excitement, from classroom assignments to the new faces on campus, textbooks etched with names of previous students, those large, intimidating elders long since departed now walking the halls of upper grades in the local high schools or off to colleges and the mysterious working world of grown-ups. Then there were the changes each of us exhibited (some classmates shot up several inches just over summer), assigned to the appointed teachers we would share space with for long periods, these substituted parental figures governing the interminable stretches a nine-month school year occupied in our imagination. Every year was an unforgettable recorded chapter, or even a lifetime itself, in the budding seasons of our formative years. Back to School. Those three words echoed into our waning days of August, met us and took hold as we shopped with our parents for a set of new school clothes and shoes, marked by sizes that noticeably had changed since the last time we had such an outing. The three little words steered us to the front gates of the first day of school, the dorment, sleeping campus enlivened once more, welcoming the new order of classroom hierarchy, community and camaraderie.
Run. Hide. Fight. These three other little words were in our vocabulary and had their place, but their purpose and meaning had no relation to what transpired in the past few weeks in today’s Back to School.
Campuses across the nation, coast to coast, have experienced a rash of incidents, troubled and careless youth welcoming their new school year brandishing various weapons of choice. Threats of mass violence, reduced as hoaxes or “swatting episodes,” resulted in campus-wide lockdowns for over a dozen universities, thousands of students sheltering in place or sprinting for safety. One unfortunate elementary school – not on the receiving end of a swat – became the recent recipient of a recurring horror, this time two children killed, 18 wounded and the lasting reality that the lives of hundreds of little students and their families will never be the same. Back to School in America today has been redefined. Keeping guns off campus is now an expanded proposition. The very fear of mass violence, coupled with a saturation of weaponry across our society, imperils the very notion of campus security. Embedded fear at the intersection where a gun meets a campus has resulted in something more systemic and sinister. This perpetuated terror must be named for what it has wrought – and if the first two weeks of a new American school year are teaching us anything, it is the culture of gun violence itself that presents multiple layers of danger, confusion and fear.
Of course, these are different episodes in scale, shape and outcome, but in many ways speak to the larger issues at play, namely the systemic state of gun-industry sponsored terrorism stripping away any last remnants of ensuring domestic tranquility for the nation, with campuses today among the many targets in the crossfire of poor public policy and distorted ideology.
The Campaign is not a news outlet per se. We are an intentional, steady voice for societal reason and common sense to prevail, to protect and defend campus climates in this highly charged, rapid-fire society which includes its news cycle. The night of the violence at Annunciation School provided evidence enough of the mounting problems. A giddy circle of TV reporters were excitedly surrounding a ten-year-old child probing what he saw and experienced in the church. He was poised, more than them, and eventually got to the part where he witnessed his best friend shot in the back. We are not at the bottom in this culture but we are knocking at its door. That reaction of this little student made the news and some outlets got the scoop, but one must ask the other questions. Why are we doing this? Who led him into this reveal? Are the little bodies still inside draped under tarps as microphones held by adults are pressed to a child’s face – here, in the immediate aftermath of seeing what he will never unsee?
This far into the new school year the Campaign is resolved to maintain its respectful and steady tone, message and cadence. Speed has its place but is not always virtuous. The proper balance is expressing, timely yes, but with fact, tact and humanity. When the news comes as Minnesota did, the Campaign will choose to be reflective and considerate in its thoughts, understanding factors and conditions behind each incident are not news at all, they are systemic and predictable.
An immediate reaction to what happened at Villanova does not ring as clearly – or truthfully – given the dozen similar experiences of terror that have ensued in the days since on other college campuses across our nation. Awaiting a few days to express the deeper sentiment is something not only to consider but arguably the proper route to take.
Additionally, we are mindful the Campaign’s general profile is aligned with colleges. We can all agree guns on campus is an all-encompassing issue of behaviors woven early, a formation of many complex influencers including legislation, resulting primarily in youth-executed violence triggering everything from killing children in a religious school to threatening orientation week at a university. The Campaign is positioned and qualified to speak to the large and holistic nature of the problem we face across the educational ecosystem while maintaining its core purpose: educating on the elements inherent in campus-carry bills introduced, argued and negotiated in the statehouses and nation’s capital, as well as the impact of those passed and implemented. Furthermore, the Campaign will be steadfast in celebrating and amplifying the many life-saving measures it has successfully and nobly championed in its tenure. This is a challenging era, but there are stars in the darkest night. One can find them in the benevolence and bravery of countless legislators, legal minds, advocates and campus leaders refusing to cede to the institutionally imposed arming of America’s schools.
The conditions facing our colleges are paved by insidious forces undermining healthy K-12 development. We can claim and make the case that keeping guns off all campuses on every level is the only true remedy to the epidemic inflicting terror upon our schools. The children in Minnesota paid a price for the collective failure. Tens of thousands who ran for their lives in the past few weeks won’t be the same, either. The Campaign will not only choose when to express but what to say. Language today matters more than ever. What the media define as a hoax or a swat, thousands of students, teachers and parents who fled for their lives and sheltered in place call terror.
Education and historical context are required. That is why we have launched the series called America’s First Colleges: Born Gun Free. The Campaign is profiling the birth of America’s colleges, from the University of Virginia to William & Mary, inspired by the likes of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The founding documents decree these educational environments were to be tranquil and weapons free. This and more, on the precipice of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, are our thoughts as the new school year launches.
It is Back to School in America. While a fresh one, in too many ways it has unacceptably begun with more of the same. How do we truly create the necessary change? Perhaps it’s back to the drawing board at the head of the class, hands raised with spirited suggestions and curious with burning questions, where we pledge allegiance to the nation we love as we reclaim its Constitutional quest of ensuring domestic tranquility. Our founders would like us back in school – but they never could have imagined nor accepted this – and nor shall we.”
