“It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it, we have to move forward,” (ABC news 2024). These were President Donald Trump’s words after one of the 83 school shootings that occurred in 2024. How can we as a country “move forward” and “get over it” when these school shootings haven’t stopped or slowed down? You can talk about a problem for as long as you want, but without addressing the root, you will never find the solution. This is what Trump has been doing to the criminal justice system in his second term. His plan to bring back the death penalty and increase arrests is an extreme band-aid that shifts attention away from an even more urgent issue: gun violence. His plans are unnecessary, cruel grasps to solve a problem without humanity.
Trump has stated, “These efforts to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, [and] make a mockery of justice,” criticizing former President Joe Biden’s decisions during his presidency. In reality, the “mockery of justice” is not Biden taking away the death penalty; the mockery is Trump’s failure to enforce measures of gun control to protect this country from ongoing gun violence. The reason we have seen such spikes in violent offenses is not because of our justice system—it is because of our loose gun laws. At 21 years old, you are permitted to purchase a hand gun, while at eighteen, you can buy a shotgun or a rifle. Your brain is not fully developed at the age of 21, let alone at eighteen, yet you are legally allowed to possess a gun. As loose gun regulations persist, deaths from gun violence continue to rise. In 2023, Johns Hopkins published an annual report of death by gun violence. Around 17,927 were homicides, 463 unintentional deaths, and 604 shot by law enforcement. They also stated that firearms are the leading cause of death for teens and children. Instead of addressing the problem of gun access, Trump is pushing policies that are solely based on power—not reason. His restoration of the death penalty stands out as only a power move rooted in ignorance that won’t reduce the violence we see in schools.
Another power move made by our President is the increase in arrests. With Trump’s endorsement, the Supreme Court has lifted the court order that restricted ICE’s roving patrols in the California area. This allows armed officers to stop anyone they deem suspicious and question their citizenship. When the President refers to individuals as “alien(s) illegally present,” it sets a precedent that leads to an increase in the detainment rate of immigrants and people with brown skin, solely based on how an officer feels. According to ABC News, “Stephen Miller berated ICE officials, threatening to fire the leaders of field offices that conducted the fewest arrests each month if the agency did not begin making at least 3,000 arrests a day.” Currently, ICE detention areas are 140 percent overcapacity—consider the women and men that go without beds or proper living arrangements, despite the possibility being unrightfully detained because of their ethnicity. 47 percent of the 59,000 people detained have no signs of a criminal background, with only around thirty percent actually convicted of crimes. This is not to say, thirty percent of the 59,000 were unjustly convicted of crimes. But it’s interesting to see how we can overlook and accept similar behavior from our President while we condemn such crimes from immigrants.
The justice system can arrest more immigrants and restore the death penalty, but that alone will not stop the rising violence in this country. The root problem of this violence we see is blatant inaction towards gun violence. Trump stated in his proclamation about the death penalty that “the government’s most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts,” yet he simultaneously ignores the deaths resulting from gun violence while advocating for the protection of our citizens. As I’m writing this article, there have been 47 school shootings since September 10 of this year, with 23 of those in K-12 schools. The rest were in colleges, leaving nineteen dead and 77 injured. In a brief speech about the Minnesota Catholic school shootings, Trump said “And time goes by and people say ‘Oh, I sort of remember it, but I remember—I’ll always remember it.’” It is one thing to say you remember but another to make necessary changes in order to ensure the safety of the children of America. We don’t see other countries mourning the death of young children because they have enforced measures of gun control. Our president refuses to stand up against these unethical reoccurrences. Every school shooting should be a wake up sign that something needs to change. However, it shouldn’t take ongoing school shootings for the president to realize that prioritizing other issues will not change the amount of deaths by gun violence.
