On November 20, 2019, Loretto Academy practiced an emergency lockdown drill.

Doors were shut and locked, shutters pulled down, lights turned off, and students and teachers alike huddled quietly in the backs of classrooms.

Drills like these have been commonplace since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 in which two Colorado teens killed 13 people and wounded 20, according to NBC News.

Since then, and even more so in recent years, the news has been riddled with as many stories of gun violence as the bodies of innocent American citizens have been riddled with bullets.

The issue of lockdowns has undeniably become a controversial one as part of its inherent association with the discussion of gun control.

As both part of a generation of students raised on the imminent threat of school shooting and as an El Pasoan still grieving over the Walmart shooting last August, I can empathize with both sides of the lockdown debate.

On one side, I cannot help but see lockdowns as a representation of how misguided American values have unduly impacted America’s youth.

Lockdowns deal with the symptom of the problem that is gun control; they force American students at ages as young as 5-year-old kindergarteners to come face-to-face with their own mortality instead of handling the root issue of gun control.

Last year when the news of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was still fresh in the press and in the minds of Americans, my peers turned to one another and wondered, “Does another person’s right to own a gun overshadow my right to life? My right to safety?”

Unintentionally or not, lockdowns seem to implicitly answer this question with a “yes” by forcing children to deal with the consequences of gun violence instead of pressuring the government to rectify America’s firearm problem.

Lockdowns should have been a short-term solution to a long-term problem, but I still have memories of sitting in darkened classrooms shoulder-to-shoulder with my friends in elementary school.

The psychological impacts of lockdowns on America’s youth will be far-reaching.

The day following Loretto’s lockdown, the announcements reported the number of “casualties” on each floor, and the faces of my peers blanched at the usage of the word: casualties. 

Even more horrendous is the fact that this is happening in high schools all across America; the normalization of lockdowns has caused the normalization of the devaluation of life.

On the other side, I understand the necessity of lockdowns; they inform us of the dangers of school shootings and how to survive them if need be.

They educate us on the proper crisis response in the event of an emergency, which can and has saved lives. 

In the most recent school shooting on November 14 in Santa Clarita, California in which a high school student shot and killed two, many lives were saved by virtue of the fact that the students and teachers knew what to do in the event of an emergency, according to California news station KTLA. 

Lockdowns assert that the way to cope with school gun violence isn’t ignorance, it’s through education; the more lives saved, the better. 

At the end of the day, the debate over lockdowns is a symptom of the debate over gun control.

Although my generation of peers has suffered greatly from the division of our country over this controversial issue, we have repurposed this conflict into a uniting force and a driving passion.

After the Stoneman Douglas shooting, survivor Emma Gonzalez famously rose up and demanded change, and America’s youth rallied around her.

“They say us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works… everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands,” said Gonzalez.

Her revolutionary movement March For Our Lives reminds us that the solution to school shootings is neither ignorance nor complacency. 

It is our right and responsibility as Americans to pressure our government to change when change is necessary; for the survivors and for the victims, we must act.

For example, you can show your support for the survivors of gun violence by visiting the March For Our Lives website and signing their petition supporting Senate Resolution 42: the Background Check Expansion Act.

The upcoming 2020 presidential election also provides a great opportunity to bring about positive, concrete change on these issues.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden visited the grieving Santa Clarita on the day of the November 14 shooting and said:

“You parents and grandparents, you send off children — 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years old — and the first thing they learn is how to duck and cover.

“What does that say about our soul?”

This sentiment to end gun violence in schools was echoed by other 2020 presidential candidates, such as Julián Castro, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders.

For those who will be able to vote in the upcoming elections, remember the value that your individual voice has in changing the nation and in upholding the great ideals of freedom and liberty.

As the next generation of Americans, it’s our responsibility to create a world that we would want our own children to grow up in — one in which they will never have to hide, blinking blindly in the darkness.