“RUN, HIDE, FIGHT,” demands the UNLV desktop computers as we were whiplashed from an educational setting into that of imminent danger. There is an active shooter on campus. Do I run, hide, or fight? The sobering reality of living in the U.S. is that we have all thought about what we would do in this situation. Yet, you can never fully prepare for this kind of panic. Nor can you fully prepare for the trauma that follows. Suddenly, our campus has collectively endured a wound that has never quite healed, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive gun reform in Nevada and beyond.

During the shooting, we would text each other every couple of minutes to make sure we were all still alive — dreading the possibility of not receiving a text back. I (Brooke) was in my office in the Department of Sociology on campus. With my hearing muffled and my vision blurred, I tried to decide which desk in my office I should hide under. The metal desk, right? But the metal desk is straight across from the window. Although, my window faces an empty parking lot, and surely the shooter wouldn’t aim up to that window. Right? Alone, out of breath and shaking, I crawled around my office unplugging lights and closing my blinds. Do I barricade the door? I can’t move that desk without it being loud. I decided to just hide under a desk. I opted for the metal one. 

I (Alma) texted Brooke as Emily, a fellow Ph.D. student, and I were scrambling to lock the glass doors and create a couch barricade in the graduate commons in the library. One door wouldn’t lock. The doors are glass. How can you give the illusion of nobody being here when there is a couch in front of glass doors? “If they want bodies, they’d come to the library,” she whispered to me. We were eventually able to lock the door, but couldn’t shut off the lights. With eyes glued to my phone, I was holding my breath hoping that we wouldn’t get a text alert from UNLV saying that he went into the library.

A year after the Dec. 6th shooting at UNLV, fear persists. This is the kind of trauma that lingers. A fuzzy veil of anxiety is an everyday reality when continuing our education in a state and country with continued gun violence and inadequate reform. When reform is contested, somehow the American value of individual freedom is cited. But, what about the individual freedom to pursue an education? What about the individual freedom to be a child? What about the individual freedom to worship? What about the individual freedom to enjoy a concert? What about the individual freedom to live a life free of fear of being shot dead? 

From 2014 to 2023 in Nevada, there have been at least 2,973 shootings killing 1,876 and injuring 2,467. Nationwide, 370,000 shootings mark the nation's past decade with the U.S. surgeon general calling firearm violence a public health crisis. As of 2023, there have been 291 gun-related homicide incidents on U.S. college campuses since 2000, and 274 incidents in K-12 schools since 2001. These shootings account for 767 deaths. With rising rates of gun violence in educational spaces and the federal attack on public education following the election of Donald Trump, who has vowed to close the Department of Education, not only is the future of education in the U.S. at risk but so is our physical safety on campuses.

Mass shootings are a uniquely American problem. Arguments that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” are without substantial merit. People with guns have the power to kill people. Arguments that mass gun violence is solely a mental health issue also miss the mark, as people in every country on the planet experience mental health struggles. Yet, the rest of the world doesn’t face this mass shooting epidemic. Mental health issues are not unique to the United States, but a culture of guns, hyper-individualism and a “good guy with a gun” savior complex surely are. Cultural and political stances on guns continue to lag behind, as people are routinely victimized by mass gun violence in the U.S.

On the day of the UNLV shooting, three faculty were killed, one faculty was severely injured and has since recovered, and tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff were traumatized. The UNLV shooting is not considered a mass shooting, which would require at least four individuals to be murdered. The UNLV shooting came about six years after the most deadly mass shooting in U.S. history that killed 58 people on the Las Vegas Strip, just a few miles from the UNLV campus. While the Las Vegas massacre on Oct. 1, 2017, influenced some statewide gun reform, it has only made a dent.

Nevada requires background checks for firearm purchases, yet registration is not required. Though the UNLV shooter used a legally purchased 9 mm pistol, he managed to cause great damage, underscoring the need for further gun reform. According to the most recent FBI data published in 2020, handguns, like the pistol used in the UNLV shooting, accounted for 59 percent of U.S. gun murders. Solutions for the firearm crisis, according to a Johns Hopkins report, include firearm purchaser licensing, firearm removal laws, safe and secure gun storage, regulation of public carry, and community violence intervention.

While Nevada employs some of these regulations, not all are extensive or effective. Nevada does not require firearm purchaser licenses despite background check requirements. Safe and secure storage is required in the presence of minors as well as sellers providing locks. Yet, owners do not have to utilize the locks nor regulate storage in the presence of others, aside from minors. In addition to the lack of storage regulation, public carry of firearms is not regulated. Permit requirements to conceal and carry in Nevada are needed, along with red flags and firearm removal laws that limit high-risk individual firearm possession.

Community support and enrichment lacks with nonprofit organizers urging for further financial safeguards and longevity in support of educational spaces. Inconsistency in policy and support in Nevada and throughout the country fail to prevent future tragedies.

Bump stocks that enhance semi-automatic weapons firing speed were banned in Nevada starting in 2019, and later federally banned. Bump stocks replace standard stocks, enhancing firing speed by allowing the weapon movement and energy from firing to the body for a quicker trigger response. The firing speed reflects machine guns, which are federally banned. Despite the danger of having access to bump stocks, the Supreme Court overruled this ban this past summer.

Nevada lawmakers await further process, yet comments such as those from incoming Vice President JD Vance (R-OH) on bump stock legislation states, “... are we legislating in a way that solves fake problems? Or solves real problems?” loom over this decision.

Assault weapons hold no federal restriction of access or possession, and only nine states prohibit them. Nevada is not one of them, thus also allowing high-capacity magazine purchases. Research finds that between 2015 and 2022, mass shootings with four or more people killed where assault weapons were used resulted in nearly six times as many people shot, more than twice as many people killed, and 23 times as many people wounded per incident on average. While access to assault weapons and high-capacity magazines has proven detrimental to public safety, unnecessary debate continues to cost lives throughout.

Continuing the debates, ghost weapons have been at the center of Nevada and national discourse. Ghost weapons are manufactured and sold as parts without serial numbers to then be assembled by individuals. Nevada lawmakers banned ghost guns in 2021 but were eventually sued by corporations, ultimately winning the right to temporarily resume production. In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) implemented regulations that were further blocked by the judge.

The following year, Nevada lawmakers approved a second ghost gun ban that was subsequently vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo along with two other reforms claiming an “impermissible burden.” This “burden,” that sensible gun reforms supposedly would cause, includes prohibiting gun possession from individuals with hate crime charges and implementing gun regulation at election polling sites. At this time, the Supreme Court has reinstated the regulations by the ATF on ghost guns while conversations continue. 

One year after the UNLV shooting, our campus is still haunted by the fear of that day. The fear is not isolated — the recurring gun violence in Nevada and beyond only further validates this collective trauma. As students in higher education, we dedicate our lives to the educational system and our communities, but when will they protect us? We must not await further tragedy for change. We must urge our state and federal legislators to pass meaningful and effective gun safety reforms targeting multilevel approaches and refrain from voting for legislators who continue to turn a blind eye to this crisis. This isn’t radical. This is reasonable.

College campuses are supposed to be spaces to learn and grow safely. Students are urged to pursue post-secondary education, yet our campuses are increasingly sites of trauma. No student should have to face the reality of practicing hiding under a desk or whether to run, hide, or fight in a system that is supposed to provide a learning sanctuary that protects and enhances their community. The feeling of true, embodied terror should have no place in higher education, nor anywhere for that matter. Yet, it does. Over and over and over again.

Brooke Weinmann and Alma Lopez are pursuing their doctorates in the Department of Sociology at UNLV.

The Nevada Independent welcomes informed, cogent rebuttals to opinion pieces such as this. Send them to [email protected].