On Wednesday, more than 50 college newspapers — including USC’s Daily Trojan — published an op-ed written by students of the March For Our Lives chapter at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who experienced a tragic shooting on their campus last year, according to a press release March for Our Lives.
The op-ed condemns the United States’ inaction in addressing gun violence.
“We will not allow the U.S. to be painted in a new layer of blood,” the op-ed said. “We will not allow politicians to gamble our lives for National Rifle Association money.”
College newspapers from across the country also published the letter, including Yale University’s Yale Daily News, the University of South Carolina’s The Daily Gamecock and now the University of Southern California’s Daily Trojan. Most publications of the letter preambled with a short message from the paper’s editors that supported the mission of the op-ed.
“In an op-ed running in over 50 college newspapers across the country, the Daily Trojan joins the UNC-Chapel Hill March for Our Lives chapter to condemn the country’s inaction in addressing gun violence,” the Daily Trojan said in a preamble to the open letter.
The editorial staff at the Daily Trojan said they hope picking up the op-ed will raise awareness to the issue of gun violence in the U.S.
In 2023, there were 346 school shootings in the U.S.
“We really resonated with the message of ‘We’re Not Waiting for Another School Shooting,’” Daily Trojan co-opinion editor Kate McQuarrie said. “This shouldn’t be a responsive thing. It should be a proactive thing.”
The op-ed made national headlines and even reached the eyes of Vice President Kamala Harris, who spoke publicly about it.
“I am proud of these young leaders on campuses across America for organizing and using their voices to call for action that will save lives,” Harris said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Some have criticized Harris for not sparking the change she speaks about.
“I think it’s an example of her shallow privilege,” Daily Trojan co-opinion editor Alexa Avila Montaño said. “We don’t want to see people supporting us anymore in that way. Please do something about it.”
Harris has similarly condemned many recent school shootings, including the one in Uvalde, Texas. However, she and President Joe Biden have been criticized for not securing major gun reform beyond the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
The initiative from the UNC students was entirely student-led with 144 students signing the op-ed, according to the press release by March for Our Lives. The letter acknowledges the power of student voices on social and political matters in the United States of America.
“History has taught us that when injustice calls students to act, we shape the moral arc of this country,” the op-ed states.