‘So close to home’: Students express concerns for recent Virginia gun violence

Varsha Vasudevan, Staff Writer

Diana Ho, Contributing Writer 

Concerns of gun violence and campus safety increase among students at VCU after recent shootings in Virginia. 

A mass shooting at the University of Virginia on Nov. 13 injured two students and killed three football players on UVA’s team, according to UVA Today.  

Senior Sydney Williams, a political science and gender, sexuality and women’s studies student, is concerned about the close proximity of shootings in Virginia.

“It’s just so scary to think that, ‘Wow, it’s so close to home,’” Williams said. “I think the closer it’s getting in Virginia, the more people are realizing it.”

Williams said it can be concerning living in a city, but it’s not much safer anywhere else in the U.S.

There have been at least 152 incidents of gunfire on school and college campuses in the U.S., resulting in about 50 deaths and 122 injuries in 2022, according to research conducted by gun control advocacy organization Everytown for Gun Safety. 

Gun murders in the U.S. have increased by 75% in the last decade, according to Pew Research Center. Mass shootings are defined as shootings with a minimum of four victims shot, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been 617 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2022, according to the archive.

Gun violence in America is due to the vast proliferation of guns, said criminal justice and homeland security professor William Pelfrey. 

Pelfrey stated that a young, minority male is at a substantially higher risk of a gunshot wound than other demographics. 

Over 5,000 males between the ages of 15-24 were killed by a firearm in 2020, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention Wonder. While 1,466 of these deaths were white, 3,681 of these deaths were Black, according to the database.

“There are geographic variables at play as well — persons from low socioeconomic areas are significantly higher risk,” Pelfrey stated.

The victims that died in the University of Virginia shooting were identified as three undergraduate Black male students, according to UVA Today. 

“VCU has one of the largest university police forces in the nation and is nationally accredited,” Pelfrey stated. “This means that VCU police provide high quality public safety and work closely with other law enforcement agencies to secure students, staff, faculty, and the community.”

Senior public relations specialist for VCU Police Corey Byers stated VCU Police utilizes “strategic patrols” to ensure officers are visible to community members and students.

“We have found that a visible police presence can deter those who come to VCU’s campuses with ill intent,” Byers stated. 

VCU Police patrols campus 24/7 and can be contacted through a direct phone number or the LiveSafe app, Byers stated. 

“The VCU Police Department takes all threats seriously and will investigate each one, including threats made on social media,” Byers stated. “We encourage everyone at VCU to report suspicious behavior to us immediately so we can determine if a threat to the community exists.”

VCU Police advocates for students to engage in the “run, hide, fight” method in the event of an active shooter, Byers stated. The method’s name is the order in which one should act from farthest to closest physical proximity to a shooter, according to VCU Police. 

Byers also stated students and community members should sign up for VCU Alerts, a system that notifies when there is an active and ongoing threat at VCU. 

The Virginia General Assembly has not prefiled bills on gun violence or firearms since the 2022 session, according to Virginia’s Legislative Information System.

About 27 bills involving firearms and dangerous weapons were proposed in the GA but none passed during the 2022 session, according to LIS. 

Senior Emma Geisler, an interdisciplinary studies student, said gun violence is a risk as a student.

“Especially because it’s in the news so often, I have to take the risk that every time I step out on the street, that could happen to me,” Geisler said. 

Most people have become desensitized to hearing about gun shootings, herself included, Geisler said.

“Of course it hits a bit harder when it’s closer to home. But it’s also not the first time it’s happened. We have the history of Virginia Tech, we have a history of many school shootings,” Geisler said. “It’s obviously bound to happen again and again, unless there’s action taken.”